KPU announces mapping of electoral districts
Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The General Elections Commission (KPU) has established a total of 1,565 electoral districts in more than 400 regencies for the seats in regency and municipality legislative councils.
But no further details on the boundaries of the electoral districts were provided.
The electoral districts in Aceh's regencies and municipalities have yet to be drawn up to the ongoing registration of eligible voters in the province. The registration has been hampered by the ongoing military offensive.
KPU member Anas Urbaningrum said here on Thursday that KPU would officially distribute the electoral maps to its branches in provinces, regencies and municipalities on Friday.
"The public is expected to give feedback about the electoral districts within two weeks (after the map is made public)," he said.
Previously, KPU had created 200 electoral districts in 32 provinces for the seats in provincial legislative councils and 69 electoral districts for the 550 seats allocated for the House of Representatives.
Separately, the National Mandate Party (PAN) proposed a new way to form electoral districts so that all seats in the regency and provincial legislative council and the House were distributed fairly.
In a statement signed by PAN Deputy Chairman A.M. Fatwa and deputy secretary general A. Hakam Naja, the party proposed that every electoral district should be allocated between six and ten seats to give a fair chance for all election contestants, including the newcomers, to gain seats in the regional legislatures and provincial legislative councils.
KPU should also consider the geographical condition of a region or several regions which were merged to form an electoral district so that legislators could serve their constituents, said the statement.
It proposed the large North Sumatra province be divided into four electoral districts, instead of the current two, while South Sulawesi be divided into three electoral districts and not two.
According to the party, Jakarta could be split into three electoral districts, instead of two, given the fact that absentee ballots from those who are abroad would be allocated for the capital city.
Besides, PAN also suggested that the Central Java regencies of Boyolali, Karanganyar, and Sragen and Surakarta municipalities be merged to form a single electoral district due to their similar culture.
Anas said the commission would consider PAN's proposal to improve the quality of the general election scheduled for April 5.
In other related developments, the Transparency International Center for Innovation and Research (TI-CIR) called on Indonesia to use the incoming legislative and presidential elections as a good moment to seek a strong national leader which was committed to eradicating rampant corruption.
Jeremy Pope, a senior staff member at TI-CIR said that ahead of the elections, presidential candidates should make public their anticorruption platform if they wanted to be elected.
"Otherwise, a president will be confused about what to do to eradicate the corruption in his/her first 100 days," he said.
He cited as an example, that Brazilian President Lula was confused because he had no program to combat the corruption in the bureaucracy while presidential candidates in Bangladesh announcing their anticorruption program during their presidential campaigns.
Emmy Hafidz of Indonesian chapter of the Transparency International suggested that politicians running for the president should set a specific timetable to combat corruption in the judiciary, to announce their financial report and unveil their parties's accountability in the first 100 days of their administration.