KPU demands election law revision

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.