KPU to seek Court review in recall case

KPU to seek Court review in recall case

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A regulation to allow political parties to arbitrarily replace
elected representatives with an appointee of its choice at the
provincial and regental legislatures remains in limbo as the
General Elections Commission (KPU) has not yet verified the
requirements for the replacement legislators.

KPU deputy chairman Ramlan Surbakti said on Thursday the
commission would seek legal advice from the Supreme Court before
responding to the parties' moves, in order to prevent future law
suits from those who are dismissed.

"We will meet with the Supreme Court to get a legal opinion
about the replacement mechanisms," Ramlan said. He did not set a
specific date for the meeting.

Under the law on composition of legislative bodies which was
passed in July this year, candidates who will replace legislative
members in the House of Representatives and the provincial and
regency legislatures are subject to screening by the KPU.

Ramlan said the KPU needed certainty of procedures to select
eligible replacements, although he believes that the substitute
must be next in line on the list of legislative candidates
submitted to the KPU before the election.

A number of political parties have started withdrawing their
non-conforming members at the provincial and regental legislative
councils following the enforcement of the law on the composition
of legislative bodies that revives the parties' power to replace
legislative members.

Such an authority was adopted during the New Order regime
which fell in 1998, but was then scrapped as part of the reform
movement on the grounds that legislative members represented the
people instead of political parties.

Separately, KPU member Mulyana W. Kusumah said that apart from
the election law, the law on composition of legislative bodies
needed revision.

"We are proposing that the House increase the number of seats
at the House of Representatives from 550 to 560, which is against
the law on composition of legislative bodies," he said.

The demands for such an amendment have increased over the past
few weeks following requests from the some provinces whose
territories had been split.

The KPU has decided that North Sulawesi, Maluku and Papua must
share their seats with the new provinces of Gorontalo, North
Maluku and West Irian Jaya respectively.

Therefore, the provincial seats of those areas at the House
would decline. North Sulawesi is allotted six instead of seven,
Maluku is to have three instead of six and Papua is allocated 10
seats.

In other election news, the Elections Supervisory Committee
(Panwaslu) urged the KPU to halt the ongoing verification of
regional representative candidates due to legal flaws.

Saut Sirait, Panwaslu deputy chairman, said KPU would announce
the regional representatives candidates who qualify on Dec. 9,
before the number of eligible voters is announced on Dec. 31.

"We know that on Dec. 9, we will not know the number of
eligible voters who will determine the number of regional
representative candidates. Therefore the verification must be
canceled," he said.