KPU urges government to speed up testing of new parties
KPU urges government to speed up testing of new parties
Arya Abhiseka and Fabiola Desy Unidjaya, The Jakarta Post,
Jakarta
The General Election Commission (KPU) urged the government on
Tuesday to speed up the ongoing verification of new political
parties to allow it to hold the general election and the
presidential election ahead of the schedule.
Nazaruddin Sjamsuddin, chairman of KPU, said KPU could not do
many works to prepare the general elections if it did not know
the number of political parties to contend the general election.
He said KPU could not determine the number of parties eligible
for the election because the Justice and Human Rights Ministry
has yet to finish with the verification of more than 200
political parties registered with the ministry.
"There are a lot of duties to be carried out in fulfilling our
own commitment to organizing the election ahead of the schedule,"
he said.
Nazaruddin said that besides conducting voters registration on
April 1, KPU would verify political parties to make sure the
number of parties contending the election and it could not start
designing ballot papers, vote boxes, booths and many others
unless it did not know the number of election contenders.
"We hope that the government will give us the data of the
verified parties periodically, instead of giving a large amount
of data at the last minute, so that KPU could examine whether the
verified parties meet the legal requirements to contend the
election " he said.
According to the newly endorsed election bill, some 237
parties must first go through two levels of examinations before
they are declared eligible for the election.
The first-phase examination is conducted by the Justice and
Human Rights Ministry and the second-phase test is conducted by
KPU. The first test is aimed at checking whether the parties meet
the legal requirements to exist and the second one is aimed at
examining whether they meet legal requirements to contend the
election.
Separately, Wicipto Setiadi, deputy chairman of the
government's verification team said that his team would examine
the new political parties in four groups and the examination of
the last group was expected to finish in September.
"If KPU has urged us, then we can only urge parties to
register as soon as they can with the ministry. They hold the
key," he said.
He added that thus far only 18 parties were registered at the
ministry, in which none had passed the eligibility test. The
party registration deadline is on September 27 of this year.
"There are still the ones that use similar logos and
attributes. It is mandatory for several to alternate the logos
and attributes or facing disqualification, while the alternation
process will take time," he said.
KPU has vowed to run the election in April 2004, tow months
ahead of the schedule to give more chance for it to prepare the
presidential election in June 2004 so that a new president and
vice president could be sworn in October.
Meanwhile, president Megawati Soekarnoputri warned KPU to be
independent in preparing the country's first ever direct
presidential election.
Speaking in a closed door meeting with her party, the
Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) cadres
on Tuesday, Megawati underlined that KPU hold a pivotal role to
ensure the success of the election.
"KPU should just work and be independent in preparing the
election," Megawati said as quoted by the party's treasurer
Noviantika Nasution on Tuesday.
"KPU members should not take the role as observers,
researchers nor politicians, because people are tired in hearing
those comments," she remarked.