KPU casts doubt on 2004 general election

KPU casts doubt on 2004 general election

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Members of General Election Commission (KPU) expressed their
doubt on Monday that the next elections would take place in 2004
as scheduled mainly due to legal technicalities.

In a meeting with Vice President Hamzah Haz at his office, the
KPU delegates said they could not exercise the authority they
needed to begin the preparations for the election because of the
absence of laws on elections and political parties.

"Our current job is guessing what the country's electoral
system will be. We cannot even establish our branches in
provinces and regencies because the laws are not there yet. We do
not have the authority or the money," KPU member Imam Prasodjo
told reporters after the meeting with Hamzah.

"That's why we've come to the President and Vice President to
ask whether this government is serious in establishing the
general election commission."

The KPU delegation was led by its chairman Nazaruddin
Syamsoeddin.

The commission has repeatedly said it will take it two years
to prepare a fair and just election.

Currently the government is finalizing the supporting draft
laws. It argues that the drafts cannot be presented to the House
of Representatives for deliberation due to the continuing delay
of the 1945 Constitution amendment on the new system of
presidential election and legislative body at the People's
Consultative Assembly.

Nazaruddin said the bills could be submitted to the House
without waiting for the amendment, unless the uncertainty was
prolonged.

"I hope the two bills, currently being finalized at the
Ministry of Home Affairs, would be endorsed before June,"
Nazaruddin said.

Imam said that KPU needed the laws to start its program
immediately, so it could work without being pressed for time
prior to the elections.

Lack of funds is another problem KPU is facing, Nazaruddin
said.

He said the commission would need a total of Rp 3 trillion
(US$300 million) to finance the general election process and the
government has not yet provided the money. Nazaruddin did not
elaborate what the whopping amount of money was for.

During the meeting with Hamzah, Nazaruddin also said KPU
planned to hold preliminary registration for 25 percent of
eligible voters in August this year, in a bid to establish a
database of prospective voters.

According to the current election law, a physically and
mentally healthy citizen at least 17 years of age, or younger but
married, is eligible to vote.

"But the registration can only be conducted if the government
disburses the funds for us immediately," Nazaruddin said.

He insisted that the government's support for KPU was crucial.

"A general election is one of the government's programs.
Should it fail, then it means the current government also fails,"
Nazaruddin said.