House divided on election monitoring

House divided on election monitoring

JAKARTA (JP): The House of Representatives was divided down the middle on the question of whether or not an independent commission to monitor the election in 1997 is necessary.

Predictably, the dominant faction Golkar and the Armed Forces (ABRI) were opposed, while the two minority factions, the United Development Party (PPP) and the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) were all for it, according to Antara yesterday.

"Whatever for?" asked Aminullah Ibrahim of the ABRI faction. "There is already an election commission. Creating another one would simply be a waste of time," he said.

Moestahid Astari, the chairman of the Golkar faction, pointed out that the National Election Committee already includes a commission whose task is to monitor the election. "What is the use of having another committee?"

There is no law against another committee being set up, but, he said, it must have the approval or be set up with the knowledge of the National Election Committee.

Muhammad Buang of the PPP said he fully supports the idea of an independent commission to ensure that the election is fair and just. "We've seen that the past five elections have not been fair and just, to the detriment of PPP and PDI," he said.

Suryadi of the PDI, and a deputy House speaker, said he has long supported the idea. "This is an activity of the people that does not require an official seal of approval and cannot be banned by anyone," he said.

While he agreed with claims that past elections were not fair, he said the establishment of an independent committee should not be based on that prejudice, but on the basis of establishing democracy.

A number of non-governmental organizations have met in recent months to form election monitoring committees. Many university students have volunteered to join the committees to handle monitoring at local polling booths. (emb)