KPU allocates 550 House seats for 32 provinces

KPU allocates 550 House seats for 32 provinces

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The General Elections Commission (KPU) announced on Thursday the
allocation of 550 seats of the House of Representatives for 30
provinces with five new provinces securing at least three seats
through the 2004 legislative elections.

KPU chairman Nazaruddin Syamsuddin said that the KPU was
somewhat late in allocating the seats, as it had to be accurate
in the counting because the issue was a sensitive one.

"We must be accurate in determining the seat allocation. That
is why it was announced late," he said in a press conference
after the commission's plenary meeting.

Based on its own schedule, the KPU should have announced the
allocation of the House seats early last month.

KPU member Anas Purbaningrum said the KPU conducted a study
with a lengthy dialog to ensure a fair distribution of the 550
House seats for all provinces.

The distribution of the House seats is based on the quota and
the population size as stipulated in Law No. 12/2003 on general
elections.

According to the law, the provinces with a bigger population
have a maximum quota of 425,000 people per seat while the
provinces with a smaller population have a minimum quota of
3,245,000 people per seat.

The law also stipulates that each province must have a similar
number of seats as it obtained in the 1999 elections and new
provinces -- Riau Islands and West Irian Jaya -- are allotted at
least with three seats.

According to the KPU, Anas said, a combination of new
provinces and their mother province would obtain a similar number
of seats to those of the mother province in the 1999 election.

Based on this assumption, if the mother province had seven
seats in the 1999 elections a new province may obtain three seats
from its mother province, he said.

For example, Gorontalo which was separated from its mother
province of North Sulawesi, would take three seats of the seven
seats obtained by North Sulawesi in the last elections.

This method also applies to the other new provinces of Banten,
Riau islands, Bangka Belitung, North Maluku and West Irian Jaya,
he said.

Anas explained that the KPU calculated the quota of each
province based on the 1999 seats, resulting in eight provinces
with a quota of less than 325,000 per seat, nine provinces that
have a quota of between 325,000 and 425,000 per seat, and 15
provinces with a quota of over 425,000 per seat, Anas said.

The eight provinces with a quota of less than 325,000 are West
Sumatra, South Kalimantan, Gorontalo, East Nusa Tenggara, North
Maluku, West Irian Jaya and Papua.

The nine provinces with a quota of between 325,000 and 425,000
are Aceh, Bengkulu, Riau islands, Bangka and Belitung, Bali, East
Kalimantan, South Sulawesi, Southeast Sulawesi, and Maluku.

"With such a calculation 17 provinces will obtain a total of
134 seats and the 15 others will get 416 seats," he said.

The remaining 15 provinces are North Sumatra, Riau, Jambi,
South Sumatra, Lampung, Jakarta, West Java, Banten, Central Java,
Yogyakarta, East Java, West Nusa Tenggara, West Kalimantan, North
Sulawesi, and Central Sulawesi.

Regarding the seat allocation for the two newly formed
provinces of Riau islands and West Irian Jaya, KPU deputy
chairman Ramlan Surbakti said the KPU had referred to the recent
letter of Minister of Home Affairs Hari Sabarno who said the two
new provinces already had a functioning administration.

"We will only recognize new provinces if the provinces have
been established by law and they already have administrations,"
he said.

The government has not yet appointed acting governors for the
two new provinces although their administration has already been
established.