KPU set to ratify poll results

JAKARTA (JP): The General Elections Commission (KPU) needs another week to check reports before it can declare the results of the June 7 elections valid, according to chairman Rudini.

Rudini told the media on Monday he had urged commission members to cooperate so the poll results could be validated before July 26. The vote count was completed and endorsed on Saturday by the National Elections Committee (PPI); then, the KPU and the Elections Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu) hinted they would soon follow suit and endorse the poll results.

Rudini described a number of unfinished tasks including the commission's "Team of Eleven" established recently to investigate reports of electoral violations.

The commission is also waiting for a report from another team that is responsible for "verifying the accuracy of the national vote count" completed by the National Elections Committee (PPI).

Chairman of the verification team Nurdin Purnomo earlier told the commission's plenary meeting his members had so far only verified the poll results in 13,034 polling stations.

Voting took place in 300,124 polling stations nationwide and 108 overseas polling places.

In addition, Rudini said, the commission had written to President B.J. Habibie requesting a solution for the 13 million voters for small parties that had failed to secure a seat at the House of Representatives. Some observers have decried the "waste" of votes due to the parties not establishing vote-pooling agreements beforehand.

"The aspiration of the 13 million voters should be accommodated in the DPR (House of Representatives). And it's up to the government to decide," he said.

Interest groups

Meanwhile, slow tallying of the poll results was blamed for the delayed distribution of the 700 seats for the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), Indonesia's highest law-making body, which will elect the new president.

As of Monday, the KPU had only decided to allocate one seat to represent Chinese Indonesians. He or she will join 64 others tasked with representing the interests of various groups at the MPR.

The KPU has received numerous applications for the seats.

In a related development, dozens of activists from the West Java office of the Muslim Students Association (HMI) held a demonstration on Monday on the second floor of the commission's office, protesting the allocation of seats for student representatives in the MPR.

"A student representation in the MPR will only hamper the students' campaign for reforms," said the students in their statement.

"An allocated MPR seat for students is part of the political elite's efforts to stifle our critical stance over the ruling power."

The students also demanded that political parties that had failed to secure seats in the House of Representatives resign from the KPU.

In Yogyakarta, the Association of Lawyers and Law Practitioners (PAPI) campaigned to have noted lawyer Adnan Buyung Nasution represent them in the MPR.

Also in Yogyakarta, some 450 farmers demanded on Monday that farmers be represented in the new MPR, saying that the Assembly was the arena for them to campaign to improve their welfare.

Meanwhile, constitutional law expert Harun Alrasid and political observer Arbi Sanit called for an amendment to the 1945 Constitution to empower regional representatives in the MPR.

"The Assembly should consist of the DPR and the regional representatives, all of whose members should be elected rather than appointed," Harun said. He referred to the bicameral system -- the House of Representatives and the Senate -- in the United States' parliamentary system.

"With the bicameral system, the regional representatives will struggle for their constituents' interests, effectively control the government and actively participate in the House's legislating tasks, as well as maintain the national unity.

"The fact that certain regions have asked for separation from the republic has much to do with our failure to channel their interests," Harun, who recently resigned from the KPU, said.

Arbi of the University of Indonesia's School of Politics said it would be difficult for the new provincial legislatures to elect the regional representatives as the regional representatives were also representatives of their own parties.

He said that with the current system, the military will still be represented in the regional representative faction since 10 percent of the provincial legislature members will be military personnel.

Each of the 27 provinces will have five representatives in the new MPR, elected by provincial legislatures.(rms/44/imn)