House drags feet in revising election bill: KPU member

House drags feet in revising election bill: KPU member

A'an Suryana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A member of the General Elections Committee (KPU) urged the House
of Representatives on Thursday to immediately revise the 1999
Election Law, or else the committee would run out of time to
prepare the 2004 polls.

Chusnul Mar'iyah, one of 11 KPU members, expressed concern
over the House's lack of will in deliberating the amendment bill,
which would affect the process before and after the 2004
elections.

"It seems that the House is not making the deliberation of the
bill a priority," Chusnul told reporters after addressing a
seminar on good governance held by Paramadina University here.

"Instead of taking necessary steps that could smooth the
legislative process, the House has involved itself in political
power plays."

The legislators spent much of their energy last year to fight
President Abdurrahman Wahid, who eventually fell over his alleged
role in a financial scandal involving the State Logistics Agency
(Bulog). This year, the House legislators are busy rescuing their
speaker Akbar Tandjung, a suspect in another scam linked to
Bulog.

One year has past since the government submitted the bill to
the House.

Changes to the 1999 Election Law cannot be made from the legal
point of view, pending the completion of an amendment to the 1945
Constitution by August of this year at the latest.

KPU has set a 2003 deadline for the House to endorse the
revision bill.

Chusnul said a failure to meet the deadline would force the
KPU, the facilitator of the elections, to use the current law,
which many criticized for containing many loopholes and
inconsistencies.

Citing an example, Chusnul said that if the revision failed to
materialize, the reduction of parties, an idea which drew strong
support from all contesting parties, would not take effect

The 1999 Election Law states that any party could register
itself with the KPU for the next election unless it failed to
reach a mandatory 2 percent voter threshold in the previous
election.

Under the much-awaited new law, those which failed to meet the
2 percent threshold in the 1999 polls would be banned from the
2004 elections. They would be allowed to register for the 2009
elections, however.

Chusnul said the 2 percent rule served as a method to select
the eligible parties as well as to simplify administrative
matters at the KPU.

She believes the amendment would affect the quality of the
2004 elections.

"Therefore, like it or not, the deliberation process must soon
be completed, otherwise we may repeat the disastrous experience
of the 1999 elections," she said.

The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle was the top vote-
getter in 1999, but failed to win the presidency which went to
the National Awakening Party, which secured the fourth most votes
overall. Many called it a tragedy of democracy.

The new law is expected to determine which election system,
proportional or regional, will be used in 2004.