House fails to finish electoral bill on schedule

House fails to finish electoral bill on schedule

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Disagreement over the electoral system and threshold have stalled
the deliberation of the election bill, raising the specter of
failing to meet the Jan. 30 deadline.

Most political parties have agreed to introduce a
proportional, open-listed system, which allows people to vote for
individuals, while the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle
(PDI Perjuangan) is insisting on the proportional system, where
voters can only choose political parties.

PDI Perjuangan, chaired by President Megawati Soekarnoputri,
is the biggest faction in the House.

Small political parties in the House are also insisting that
the implementation of the 2 percent electoral threshold be
delayed until the 2009 general election so that they too can
still contest the 2004 election.

Legislators deliberating the bill said on Friday that they
would not finish deliberating the bill on time.

The chairman of the House of Representatives (DPR) Special
Committee for the election bill deliberation, Agustin Teras
Narang, said the bill's endorsement had been rescheduled to Feb.
11.

"We've agreed to finish the bill in February, possibly on Feb.
11," said Teras from PDI Perjuangan.

Deputy chairman Chozin Chumaidy of the United Development
Party (PPP) said the committee would report the delay to the
House's Steering Committee (Bamus) next Thursday.

The delay will be the second after legislators also failed in
November to beat the deadline, which they themselves set.

Other issues of contention that have slowed down deliberation
include electoral jurisdiction, the status of civil servants who
become legislators, defendants who want to nominate themselves as
legislators and the number of Regional Representatives Council
(DPD) members.

Of more than 900 items, he added, there were 101 unsolved
items.

Had the issues on the electoral system and electoral
jurisdiction been finished, Teras said, it would be easier for
legislators to finish with other issues.

"Because those issues relate to the electoral system," Teras
added.

Regarding the debate on the electoral system, Chozin disclosed
that most factions had agreed to adopt a proportional system with
an open list of candidates.

He said that only the PDI Perjuangan faction was insisting on
maintaining the current proportional system.

Under a proportional electoral system, the people vote for
political parties, not individual representatives.

Commenting on the delay, a member of the General Elections
Commission (KPU), Hamid Awaluddin, said the delay was tolerable.

"The sooner the legislators finish the deliberation, the
better. A one or two-week delay is acceptable," Hamid told The
Jakarta Post on Friday night.

Hamid added that he could understand the difficult task the
legislators had in deliberating the election bill. There are at
least 900 items in the bill that must be discussed.

He, however, expected that legislators would quickly finish
debating the bill because a quick deliberation would benefit
political parties and the nation as a whole.

Quicker deliberation would give more time for the KPU to
organize registration as well as clarify political parties.