Gang of strange attackers hit Monopoly Watch office

Gang of strange attackers hit Monopoly Watch office

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A group calling itself the election support committee attacked on
Thursday the office of Monopoly Watch following the latter's
criticism of the General Elections Commission (KPU) for its
procurement tender process.

A press release from Monopoly Watch said the group, consisting
of between 10 to 15 people, came to its office twice on Thursday
to look for chairman Samuel Nitisaputra.

The group demanded that the non-governmental organization
(NGO) retract its criticism of the tender process, and quit
commenting on election preparations.

When the group came earlier in the day, it insisted upon
entering the NGO's office despite the fact that Samuel was not
in.

Failing to find Samuel, members were angered so they attempted
to smash up windows.

At around 4 p.m., the small gang returned, but this time they
hurled an array of stones at Monopoly Watch's office and managed
to break some windows.

Then they hightailed it away in public buses after their
ammunition of stones began to wane, but not before they
threatened to return again.

The NGO, which is committed to fighting certain forms of
corruption and collusion in the interests of consumers, has been
calling on the KPU to be open and honest in holding its tender
for the provision of ballot boxes, following the participation of
the Maspion Group that controls 70 percent of the aluminum
production market in the country.

In a separate development, the KPU decided on Thursday to
allow political parties to appoint substitutes of recalled
legislators until next year as stated by law No. 4/1999 on the
composition of legislative bodies.

KPU deputy chairman Ramlan Surbakti said that under the new
law, recalled legislators were supposed to be replaced by the
party's candidates that had the next ranking below in terms of
votes garnered and must, of course, be from the same electoral
district.

But this article could not be implemented as seats in the
House of Representatives were occupied by legislators appointed
by their political parties regardless of the number of votes they
got in 1999 election.

Thus, KPU would leave the matter to political parties until
next year when people will select new legislators through the
election, he said.

"The party will just have to appoint the substitutes from the
same electoral districts with the recalled legislators. The party
will then report this recall to the House, and the House will
hand in the name of substitute to us. We will then verify them
and return it to the House. At the end, the House will give its
report to the President for approval," he said.

The Minister of Home Affairs Hari Sabarno and governors will
become the final destination to sign the substitutes of recalled
legislators at the province, regency or municipality levels
respectively.

This legislator recall procedure will be adopted in the
commission's instruction that would be signed soon, according to
Hari.

This planned instruction will surely pave the way for a number
of parties to drop legislators that they do not like any longer.

Besides the recall procedures, Ramlan also said the KPU had
dropped its plan to propose a revision to the 550 House seats
article of law No. 12/2003 on general elections.

"The election law amendment is out of question now. We think
the House will have no more time to talk about that revision. We
will decide the seat allocation with our own regulation," he
said.

Ramlan had earlier said that Maluku would be allotted four
seats in the 2004 House instead of the initial three seats.

One seat would be taken from West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), thus
NTB would get 10 seats instead of 11, he added.

However, 10 seats for NTB in next year's election was still an
increase from nine seats in the 1999 election, Ramlan said.