Int'l poll watchdog calls for revision of election rules

M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

An international election monitoring team suggested on Monday that election regulations deemed discriminatory should be amended to ensure greater public participation in future polls.

The European Union Election Observation Mission (EU-EOM) said in its final report on the legislative and presidential elections that a number of regulations had hampered voters and candidates from exercising their constitutional rights to the fullest.

EU-EOM chief observer Glyn Ford said during a press briefing that the restrictive measures ranged from education and health requirements, as well as prohibitions on "certain groups", could be considered as infringing the principle of universal suffrage.

"The current level of educational requirements for candidates excludes a large portion of the population and effectively discriminates against women and indigenous minorities. No education requirements should be necessary for candidates in regental and municipal elections," Ford said, adding that consideration should be given to lowering the requirements for other elections, outside of the presidential election.

Ford also said another stumbling block to wider participation was the health requirements imposed on presidential candidates, which had cost former president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid a second shot at the presidency.

"Provisions related to the health condition of candidates like the ones contained in the General Elections Commission (KPU)'s Decree No. 31/2004 are unusual in international practice," the EU-EOM said in its final report.

The EU-EOM, however, recommended that the health status of candidates should be independently assessed and made public.

Gus Dur and his running mate Marwah Daud Ibrahim were prevented from running in the July 5 presidential race after an independent team of doctors commissioned by the KPU declared that the cleric failed to meet the eyesight requirement.

In its report, the EU-EOM also recommended that the right to stand should be extended to former members of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) and its affiliates.

It further recommended that all political parties should be allowed to contest seats again in electoral districts where they won seats in the previous election.

As for the role of the KPU, the EU-EOM said that it should be accorded more leverage in the direct elections for local government chief executives, which are scheduled for June 2005.

The amended version of Law No. 22/1999 on local government is silent about the role of the KPU in organizing local elections, saying only that local election commissions (KPUDs) are responsible for organizing these elections.

"We find it very strange that the central KPU is not going to be involved in organizing the local elections. We hope that the regulation can be reversed soon," EU-EOM election analyst Domenico Tuccinardi said.

The EU-EOM mission consists of 65 long-term observers, 125 short-term members and 18 officials assigned by the embassies of EU member countries in Jakarta, as well as a team of experts, making it the biggest foreign election monitoring team in Indonesia.

Observers from the team were deployed in all of the country's 32 provinces, including the strife-torn provinces of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam and Maluku.