KPU demands election law revision
Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Due to unresolved debate over seat allocations at the House of Representatives, the General Elections Commission (KPU) demanded on Wednesday the House and the government revise the election law with a single purpose of increasing the number of House seats, from 550 to a maximum of 560.
KPU deputy chairman Ramlan Surbakti said the KPU would officially file its request with the House immediately, but did not give a specific date.
The proposed increase would make it easier for the KPU to allocate seats for newly split provinces of Maluku, North Sulawesi and Papua, he said.
Under the KPU decision that was based on Law No. 12/2003 on election, the number of House seats allocated to those provinces in 2004 will be smaller than those in 1999 as they have to share the seats originally allocated them with their breakaway provinces.
KPU has decided that Maluku will only get three seats, a decline from six seats in 1999. Its remaining three seats will go to North Maluku.
Meanwhile, North Sulawesi will have six seats instead of seven, and Papua will get 10 rather than 13.
The decision has drawn objections from legislators, both at the national level and from the three provinces, as well as provincial KPUs (KPUD). They have called on the KPU to change its decision and threatened to boycott the next elections if it fails to meet their demands.
KPU members Hamid Awaluddin and Mulyana W. Kusumah concurred with Ramlan.
Hamid said the current seat allocation problem was the result of the poor election law that failed to accurately tally the country's population.
"There is no better alternative to resolve this problem than raising the number of the House seats, from 550 to a maximum level of 560," he said.
"By doing this, there will be no need to move seats from other provinces to the three provinces (Maluku, North Sulawesi and Papua) as it will only create new political disputes."
Besides, he said, a Supreme Court justice had cautioned the KPU not to breach the article on the number of House seats.
Meanwhile, Mulyana said that revising an article on the total number of House seats would be better than amending an article on the House seat quota, which now ranges between 325,000 and 425,000 people per seat.
If the quota on House seats is increased, the KPU will still be forced to make a new calculation on the seat distribution to all provinces, Mulyana said.
He went on to say that several years ago the House revised an article on the General Elections Commission in Law No. 3/1999 on elections.
The revised article states that the new general elections commission would consist of 11 members instead of 48 political party representatives and five government representatives in the previous commission.
"So, such a revision works and does not take a long time to complete," he added.
On Wednesday, the KPU also divided the country's 32 provinces into 69 electoral districts to be allocated with the 550 seats at the House.
It also decided to merge 416 regencies/municipalities across the country into 200 electoral districts for the Provincial Legislative Council. But the commission has yet to finish the mapping of electoral districts for the Regency Legislative Council.
Another KPU member, Anas Urbaningrum, said the KPU would officially announce the final results on Friday.