House vows to endorse election bill today

House vows to endorse election bill today

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The House of Representatives is determined to bring the election
bill to a plenary meeting for endorsement on Tuesday despite some
contentious issues.

Factions in the special committee debating the bill have
expressed their readiness to settle the unsolved issues through
voting in the plenary session, since they and the government are
still at odds over the contentious issues.

The contentious issues include the representation of women in
the legislature, the prohibiting of government officials to
campaign for any political party and the banning of staging
election campaigns on university campuses.

"Although factions failed to reach a consensus on the
contentious issues, the committee will go ahead with its plan to
bring the bill to a plenary meeting to be endorsed," Agustin
Teras Narang, chairman of the special committee, said on Monday.

Leaders of General Elections Commission (KPU) in charge of
organizing elections have repeatedly urged legislators to speed
up the deliberation of the bill, otherwise any delay in the
bill's endorsement would disrupt the staging of the 2004 general
election.

Teras headed two days of meetings with home minister Hari
Sabarno representing the government to try to resolve the
contentious issues.

Following the meetings, which took place at a hotel in Jakarta
and the House building, nine factions in the special committee
reached a consensus on several issues, including the long debated
problem on electorate areas.

Golkar, the second largest faction in the House, insisted
previously on making regencies or municipalities electorate areas
while the other factions wanted provinces or parts of a province
as an electorate area.

"After the meetings, Golkar eventually agree to accept other
factions' proposal," said Firman Jaya Daeli of the Indonesian
Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan).

The committee also agreed that the number of House seats would
be set at 550, an increase of 50 from the current composition.
The increase was made apparently to accommodate the rising number
of regencies following the formation of more than 100 regencies
over the last three years.

The special committee has the right to reach a consensus on
the crucial issue, but its members and the government were
trapped in official requirements for legislator candidates so
that the issue was left unresolved.

Legislators were divided over the rule that legislator
candidates could not be former members of the defunct Indonesian
Communist Party (PKI) or affiliated organizations.

Eight factions, including Golkar, National Awakening Party
(PKB) and United Development Party (PPP), defended the inclusion
of the controversial article while PDI Perjuangan, which is
chaired by President Megawati Soekarnoputri, wanted to drop it.

The official version of the Sept. 30, 1965 aborted coup that
was blamed on the PKI has been questioned following the collapse
of president Soeharto's regime in May 1998, with historians and
politicians calling for a review of Indonesian history books.

PDI Perjuangan spokesman Zaenal Arifin emphasized that the
article should be dropped in respect of human rights.

According to Zaenal, the removal of this article would not
necessarily mean that Indonesian people would forget how the PKI
attempted to overthrow a legitimate government.

The factions in the special committee were also divided on
whether state officials should be banned from campaigning or not.

Many government officials, including the President, the Vice
President and many ministers, are members of political parties.

The factions were also at odds over the granting of a
percentage of House seats to women legislators.

Golkar, PPP, PKB, KKI and Reform factions supported the clause
while PDI Perjuangan, PBB, military/police and PDU factions
opposed it.

"Each political party will nominate its best candidates. This
is not about a quota for women but about quality," said PDU
spokesman Sayuti Rahawarin.

A number of women activists attending the meeting instantly
unfurled banners reading: "Rejecting the quota of 30 percent for
women legislators is equal to rejecting democratization."