House likely to miss deadline for political bill endorsement

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The current snail-paced deliberations of the political party and election bills by the House of Representatives (DPR) may disrupt the 2004 general elections schedule already arranged by the General Elections Commission (KPU).

The bills were expected to be endorsed by the end of the month, but with only ten working days left before the House retires for a one-month recess on Nov. 29, it appears the deadline will not be met.

Even members of the special committee (Pansus) deliberating the bills expressed pessimism on Thursday, saying the committee would not finish its task.

"We will only finish the first phase of discussions ... we have not started discussions in the smaller teams of the working committee (Panja). Besides, there are several contentious issues to discuss," committee deputy chairman Chozin Chumaidy told The Jakarta Post.

Chozin, a legislator from the United Development Party (PPP), said the legislators would finish deliberations in January at the earliest.

Fellow legislator Agun Gunandjar Sudarsa of Golkar concurred, saying a successful conclusion to debate depended on whether the House factions could compromise.

"If each of them insists on their own proposal, the deliberations won't be settled," Agun said.

However, committee chairman Agustin Teras Narang of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) simply called on committee members to be optimistic.

Based on the schedule issued by the House's steering committee (Bamus), the deliberation of the bills was supposed to be completed by Nov. 29.

Commenting on the sluggish process of the deliberations, KPU member Valina Singka Subekti said her commission had anticipated the poor performance of the House.

Valina said it had rescheduled its timetable for voter registration from January to March.

"We are a bit tolerant, but the bills should be endorsed early next year."

She said that if the registration schedule was delayed, the timetable for the 2004 elections would be disrupted.

She said the election commission had arranged the schedule based on the assumption that the elections would be held in June 2004.

Valina, a political scientist with the University of Indonesia, said registration would take place over three weeks in March and April.

The process would be continued with data processing and public clarification, she said. Voter registration numbers determines the number of seats in legislative bodies.

"The schedule proceeds step by step. If one step is delayed, the whole process will be delayed."

The commission will also scrutinize political parties early next year to determine who can compete in the 2004 elections.