Judicial review on election law demanded

Judicial review on election law demanded

JAKARTA (JP): Former members of the 1999 General Elections
Commission (KPU) filed a petition on Monday with the Supreme
Court for a judicial review into a government regulation in lieu
of the law on general election, challenging its validity.

Bennie Akbar Fatah, representing 24 former KPU members who
filed the petition, said should the Supreme Court find
irregularities in the issuance of the government regulation in
lieu of the Law No. 33/1999, the current membership of the House
of Representatives (DPR) and the People's Consultative Assembly
(MPR) would automatically be invalid.

"The regulation was issued without securing the approval of
two thirds of KPU members, as stipulated in Article 84 in Law No.
3/1999 that the government is obliged to consider the input from
KPU members.

"If the Supreme Court declares the regulation invalid, the
Presidential Decree No. 92/1999 which validated the result of the
1999 election will be invalid, simultaneously leaving the
legislature membership illegitimate," the lawyer who is also
chairman of the National Labor Party (PBN) told reporters.

In the meeting with Supreme Court deputy chief justice Taufiq,
the group handed copies of a statement from chairpersons of 24
political parties seeking the judicial review.

Bennie said then justice minister Muladi had secretly invited
three KPU members, namely chairmen Adnan Buyung Nasution, Oka
Mahendra and Jacob Tobing, to draft the regulation which was
issued in May 1999.

The regulation stipulates that KPU has the final say on the
election results.

But, the three later verified that they were not invited in
their capacity as KPU members, he said.

"At that time we had filed a complaint against Buyung to the
police. Unfortunately, we did not hear any more from the police,"
he said.

Bennie said the petition can be considered as the best
alternative solution to end the tension between the government
and the legislators.

"Many people believe that there should be a reelection to
solve the matter by electing a new president and legislators.

"If there is to be a reelection, the most acceptable argument
is that the government regulation has been invalid since its
deliberation," he said.

He said the legitimacy of the legislators was questionable as
they had rejected the accountability speech of then president
B.J. Habibie, the content of which recognized the results and the
validity of the 1999 election.

"It's such a strange motion of the legislators as the first
thing they did was to reject their own existence and suggest the
dismissal of the KPU which had authorized the ballot counting, as
well as their vote tally," he added.

There were 48 political parties contesting the 1999 election,
but only 21 of them had met the quota to book seats at the
legislative bodies.

The remaining 27 -- which had obtained a total of some 6.7
million votes or 6.38 percent of more than 105.7 million eligible
voters -- rejected the final vote count, citing vote-rigging and
other poll violations in the June 7, 1999 elections as their main
concerns.

Deputy Chief Justice Taufiq said the Supreme Court's panel of
judicial review judges will soon work on the petition, the
results of which will be made public. (bby)