KPU told to revoke seat allocation decree

JAKARTA (JP): President B.J. Habibie has demanded the revocation of an election commission decree granting legislative seats to parties that failed at the ballot box, Antara said on Monday.

"If the KPU (the General Elections Commission) does not do it (revoke the decree), if necessary President Habibie will declare it," Achmad Farhandari of the National Mandate Party was quoted as telling journalists after meeting with Habibie along with executives of six other major political parties.

The controversy is the latest hurdle election authorities must clear in order to finalize the results of June's general election.

The commission is made up of one representative from each of the 48 political parties that took part in the polls and five from the government. The decree had followed intense debate with the smaller parties that failed to gather enough votes to make it into the House of Representatives but adamantly demanded representation.

The ruling has been widely criticized and many have called for the ouster of the smaller parties from the KPU, saying they only hindered the seat allocation process.

Eleven of the 48 parties have won seats at the parliament and 120 seats remain to be allotted. The election commission missed its Aug. 28 deadline to announce the final seat allocation following a disagreement over calculation methods.

On Monday, KPU decided to revoke a stembus akoord, or a vote sharing deal, involving eight Muslim-based parties which had insisted that their own calculating method be employed.

The National Elections Committee (PPI) had earlier decided to pool votes gained by the eight parties in the elections and divide them by a certain divisor.

The group opposed the decision saying it was unfair and would reduce its share of the seats in the House. With their own method, where a ranking system is used to allocate the seats, they could get 58 seats, compared to only 39 seats based on the committee's method.

"The KPU decided the calculation for the remainder of seats will be without the vote-sharing formula," commission chairman Rudini said after the meeting.

Rudini offered two alternatives to the 48 elections contestants: They could recognize or nullify the vote-sharing deal.

Antara said 43 commission members voted against the vote- sharing deal, 12 supported it while two members abstained.

Rudini said the result of the vote was valid because the decision was agreed by at least two-thirds of the 48 political parties attending the meeting.

"The ruling to calculate without the vote sharing is only applicable for the national and regional levels which have not yet completed their calculations," he said. (emf/prb)