Government to sign results if KPU refuses

JAKARTA (JP): The government threatened on Friday to take over from the General Elections Commission (KPU) if the commission refused to endorse the poll results.

"President (B.J. Habibie) will take over the election commission's responsibility to sign the election results if the election commission refuses to do it," State Secretary/Minister of Justice Muladi said after attending a plenary session of the House of Representatives here on Friday.

Citing the 1999 law on general elections, which says the president is responsible for the elections, Muladi said the President could take such an action for the sake of the nation's interests.

He chided political parties that continued to call for investigations into poll violations, saying their reticence could prevent the KPU from endorsing the poll results by July 26. He said they should put national interests above their own.

The majority of KPU members had threatened to refuse to endorse the poll results if poll violations were not legally processed. The law stipulates that elections can only be considered free and fair if the results are accepted by at least two-thirds of the elections commission's members.

Commission chairman Rudini last week threatened to resign if the commission failed to meet the July 26 deadline.

Muladi said that it was strange that while foreign observers lauded the polls, most of the poll contestants called them unfair.

He conceded that violations did occur, but said they were by no means similar to those that took place during the New Order regime.

"Violations in the past were organized and structured while those in the recent elections were sporadic in nature," he said. (rms)