Govt to help PDI in House representation

Govt to help PDI in House representation

JAKARTA (JP): Concerned by the Indonesian Democratic Party's
(PDI) poor showing in last week's general election, the
government decided yesterday to help the party.

"We are looking at ways to help PDI obtain an appropriate
representation in the House of Representatives," Elections
Supervision Committee Deputy Chairman Lt. Gen. Syarwan Hamid told
reporters after a committee meeting yesterday.

Syarwan, who is also the Armed Forces chief for sociopolitical
affairs, said there were ways to help the PDI increase its House
membership. When asked whether there were rules for such action,
he said that in the past elections, there had always been
progress in the way problems were handled.

He said Golkar chairman Harmoko's recent offer to give PDI
some of its votes should be considered as a way to help increase
PDI's seats in the House.

PDI rejected the offer but Syarwan insisted that that was a
misperception.

"I can understand how the PDI feels about its election
achievement," he said.

Earlier this week, General Elections Committee Secretary-
General Suryatna Subrata said that transferring votes to a
defeated party could not be considered as there had not been any
agreement on this before the election.

With ballot-counting nearing its end, it is clear that PDI has
suffered a massive defeat, securing only 10 House seats for its
744 legislative candidates, while Golkar won 325 seats and the
United Development Party (PPP) 90 seats. This is the worst ever
performance by the Nationalist-Christian alliance, whose
popularity peaked in 1992 when it won 56 seats.

The results mean that the party's government-backed chairman
Soerjadi, who topped the PDI candidate list for Jakarta, and his
secretary-general Buttu R. Hutapea, ranked third for North
Sumatra, will have to quit the House in September.

Syarwan also expressed satisfaction over the poll turnout. The
number of people who did not vote was relatively small, he said.

"It shows that people's political awareness remains high," he
told reporters. "Most Indonesians want change through
constitutional political means."

Chairman of the General Elections Institute Moch. Yogie S.M.
denied the elections was unsuccessful as some people have
charged.

"People thronged the polling booths to cast their votes. This
shows that their trust in the three contestants is even higher
than in previous elections," said Yogie, who is also minister of
home affairs.

He said there was no reason for any political contestants to
shun the remaining election stages.

There were 124,740,987 registered voters. Provisionally,
112,161,955 votes were counted by the general elections
committee.

The final poll results will be sealed on June 23. The other
two remaining election stages are the establishment of the
legislative memberships, which is June 13 for the regional
councils, June 17 for provincial councils and June 24 for the
House of Representatives.

Asked about the request by PPP and PDI to have the election
rerun, both Yogie and Syarwan said repeat voting could only be
held at polling stations which experienced "problems" during the
actual election.

Both PPP and PDI cried foul against the government as the
election organizer. Syarwan said the government would soon
respond to the complaints from the three political contestants.

"The election supervision committee will hold a meeting
tomorrow (Friday) to discuss the contestants' protests," he said.

Singgih, the chairman of the Election Supervision Committee,
denied yesterday the allegations that the body had discriminated
against PPP and PDI.

"All the political contestants are represented on the Election
Supervision Committee," he said. (imn)