Govt forming team a select parties
Govt forming team a select parties
JAKARTA (JP): The government is setting up a team of 11 people
to select political parties eligible to contest the June 7
general election.
Minister of Home Affairs Syarwan Hamid said the team would be
independent and its members, which were to be announced in the
near future, would carry out the tasks of a planned national
elections committee, as stipulated in the newly endorsed draft
law on the general election process.
"The team will be established because the national election
committee has yet to be set up. It (the committee) cannot be
established now because it should be made up of representatives
of political parties eligible to contest the elections," he said
here on Thursday.
Syarwan declined to identify the team's members. But he said
their identities had been exposed prematurely by a number of
newspapers.
The Merdeka daily reported recently the team comprised: Muslim
scholar Nurcholish Madjid, noted lawyer Adnan Buyung Nasution,
political scientists Andi M. Mallarangeng, Afan Gaffar, Eep
Saefullah and Miriam Budiardjo, former Supreme Court justice Adi
Andojo, rights activist Mulyana W. Kusumah, student activists
Rama Pratama and Anas Urbaningrum, and Ryaas Rasyid, the
director-general of public administration and regional autonomy
at the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Nurcholish, who has reportedly been appointed leader of the
team, said members were to hold a meeting next Wednesday to
discuss the selection process for political parties.
He said the existing political parties -- currently more than
200 as new parties have kept sprouting following Soeharto's
resignation from presidency last May -- were all legal at this
time, but there was no guarantee they would all be eligible to
contest the elections.
He said his team would make a field tour to provinces and
regencies to check on the networks of existing parties.
"For example, we will check party chapters in provinces and
regencies as stipulated by the bill on the general election," he
said.
The new general election law requires political parties to
have chapters in at least nine provinces, and branches in 50
percent of regencies to be eligible to contest the general
election.
New parties hailed the establishment of the independent team
which they said reflected political realities.
Ridwan Saidi, chairman of the New Masyumi Party, said the
independent team's presence was the best way to ensure a smooth
transition process from the government-run General Election
Institute (LPU) to the National Election Committee (KPU).
"Of the most importance is that the team should develop good
communication with all political parties," he said.
Muchtar Pakpahan, chairman of the National Labor Party,
expressed optimism the team would be able to work independently
because all its members were credible and acceptable to political
parties.
"The team members, especially Nurcholish, Buyung, and many
others, have been popularly known and they will be able to carry
out their mission successfully," he said. (rms)