Incompetence caused poll delays: Observers

Incompetence caused poll delays: Observers

JAKARTA (JP): Delays in tallying the results of the June
elections and disputes over vote-sharing agreements reflect the
incompetence of poll organizers, official supervisors of the
elections and political lecturers said on Thursday.

They said separately that the incompetence of both the General
Elections Commission (KPU) and the National Elections Committee
(PPI) was due to partisanship and a lack of technical skills.

Riswandha Imawan, who teaches at Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada
University, said the KPU and the PPI should not meddle too much
in the selection of legislative candidates. "Let the parties
decide on their candidates and the parties should absorb people's
aspirations," he said.

The prolonged debate over vote-sharing agreements,
particularly among eight Muslim parties, was in part due to the
fact that the "both KPU and PPI were not transparent about when
the agreements actually took place", he said in Yogyakarta.

The agreements were initially said to be invalid because they
were submitted after the June 7 polls took place. But
representatives have said there were other agreements among
political parties which had been accepted after the June 4
deadline.

In Jakarta, the National Election Supervisory Committee
(Panwaslu), after a two-day meeting with 27 provincial chapters
which evaluated the polls, recommended that it be given more
authority in future.

Panwaslu itself has been criticized for being slow and
inadequate in supervising the polls. Members said they were only
authorized to draw up recommendations.

The supervisory committee also said the KPU's authority should
be limited to only drawing up technical decrees. "They should not
take over the authority of lawmaking bodies," Ramelan Surbakti of
Panwaslu said.

The KPU was frequently lambasted for suggesting changes in the
political laws. Ramelan also noted the KPU had violated its own
rules and had issued new decrees without canceling previous ones.
Confusion over vote-sharing agreements was also caused by related
decrees.

Ramelan also said the national meeting recommended the KPU be
trimmed down to five or seven members.

He added that members should be nonpartisan, credible,
committed to democracy and have sufficient skills.

"The members should be independent and have no links to the
political parties or the government," Ramelan said.

The 53-member KPU comprises five government representatives
and 48 representatives of political parties. Legislators ruled
out the government's proposed membership of community
representatives in the KPU. (05/44)