KPU faces tight schedule for delaying election

Berni K. Moestafa, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesia may have only one-and-a-half months to hold a general election to ensure that there is a new government by October 2004, with March 2004 being targeted as the earliest possible month and mid-April as the latest, General Elections Commission (KPU) deputy chairman Ramlan Surbakti said on Thursday.

Speaking at a seminar on the newly enacted Elections Law, Ramlan presented the tight schedule to allow enough time to adequately prepare the elections and still meet the October deadline.

KPU is in charge of organizing both the legislative and presidential elections, and decides when they should be held.

The possible gap of just one-and-a-half months signals the minimum delay the KPU can afford in preparing the elections.

"The president and the vice president have to be inaugurated by the MPR (People's Consultative Assembly) by October 20, 2004," Ramlan said.

October 2004 marks the end of a five-year MPR mandate of the present government led by President Megawati Soekarnoputri.

A late election would extend Megawati's presidency beyond her mandate, rendering the government unconstitutional.

"From that (date in October) we can calculate backwards to get the timing right for the general election," said Ramlan.

He said a new MPR had to be established in the second week of October, meaning that during the week before, members of the House of Representatives (DPR) and the Regional Representatives (DPD) would have to be already installed. The new MPR will consist of the DPR and the DPD.

The outcome of the direct presidential election should be known by September, Ramlan said.

The KPU has to allot enough time for two rounds of the presidential election, as required by the Constitution. A second round becomes necessary if the first one fails to produce a president with a win of at least 51 percent of the vote.

Ramlan said that within two months after the first round of elections, it would be known whether a second round was needed .

"That is, providing that no one challenges the election results," he said, explaining that a judicial review of the election could delay the process by another month.

Through the soon-to-be established constitutional court, presidential candidates may challenge the election results.

But it is the upcoming House debate on the presidential bill that will determine whether the KPU will have just one-and-a-half months for the election or maybe more.

If legislators decide to separate the presidential election from the legislative one, the window of opportunity could narrow to one-and-a-half months. A combined election would widen that window by two months.

Ramlan said that a combined election would push back the deadline from mid-April to early June, allowing the KPU more time to prepare the elections.

So far the House's largest faction, the Indonesian Democratic Party for Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), has expressed only support for a separate election.

On the preparation side, deputy chairman Ramlan cited three tasks for determining the election schedule.

First, the registration of election hopefuls, consisting of political parties and DPR and DPD candidates. This may take about seven-and-a-half months, he said.

More than 200 parties have registered themselves at the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights. Following the enactment of the Political Party Law, all parties have to reapply under the revised and tougher terms to qualify as a political party.

The KPU cannot start registering election candidates until the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights verifies them as political parties.

The deadline for party registration falls in September of this year, but Ramlan said it was not clear whether that would include verification as well.

The second task is the time it will take to register eligible voters from among the more than 210 million Indonesians.

Ramlan predicted 11 months would be needed to complete this job.

The third task is the supply and distribution of logistics, such as ballot boxes and documentation for polling stations throughout the country, which may take 124 days, he said.

If everything goes as planned, he said, all three tasks could be completed before March 2004.