KPU will welcome parties filing complaints

KPU will welcome parties filing complaints

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The General Elections Commission (KPU) said on Wednesday that it
welcomed complaints from parties that had not been declared
eligible for next year's elections, but stressed that only valid
protests would be entertained.

"Please, feel free to submit complaints but we will only
entertain written objections with accompanying evidence. We will
sort out which complaints have to be responded and which do not,"
said Mulyana W. Kusuma, the KPU member chairing the party
verification team.

Only six of 40 parties undergoing field verifications have
been declared eligible for next year's general election, while
the remaining 34 must wait until Sunday (Dec. 7), when KPU is
slated to announce the qualification of more political parties
for the 2004 elections.

Mulyana said, in an unscheduled press conference on Wednesday,
the commission had only received reports from 26 provincial
elections commissions (KPUDs).

The press conference was also attended by dozens of leaders of
political parties that had not yet been declared eligible for the
elections.

Mulyana, however, said that the commission would respond to
requests by political parties that were yet to be verified in the
provinces or regencies they had proposed.

"We will order provincial elections commissions to do the
verification in areas that have not been verified," said Mulyana,
stressing that provincial KPUDs must be able to provide
explanations to complaints filed by political parties.

As Mulyana was speaking to reporters, several leaders of new
parties, such as Dimyati Hartono of the Indonesia Our Homeland
Party (PITA) and Gempar Soekarnoputra of the Indonesia National
Unifying Party (PPNI), waited for him at the KPU office, along
with dozens of other political party leaders.

Dimyati told the press that he wanted to hear the KPU's
explanation over the fate of his party, which according to the
commission had failed the field verifications.

According to Dimyati, KPU had failed to verify his party's
branch offices in a number of provinces and regencies.

KPU has yet to name political parties that failed the
screening. Some newspapers, however, have published the names of
political parties that are likely to fail to meet the requirement
of having branch offices in at least two-thirds or 21 of the
country's 32 provinces, and in two-third of regencies and
municipalities in those provinces.
Failing to meet the requirement means they will not be able to
participate in the upcoming elections.

Indonesia is scheduled to hold the general election in April
2004, and two-phase direct presidential elections in July and
September.

KPU announced on Tuesday that six of 40 new political parties
had passed field verifications and thus, would be allowed to
contest in next year's elections.

The six were identified as the Democratic Party, the
Prosperous Justice Party, Concern for the Nation Functional
Party, Indonesia Justice and Unity Party, Reform Star Party, and
the Freedom Bull National Party.

Six other parties -- the Indonesian Democratic Party of
Struggle, Golkar, the United Development Party, the National
Awakening Party, the National Mandate Party, and the Crescent
Star Party -- automatically earned a space in the 2004 elections
as they passed the two-percent electoral threshold in the 1999
elections.

Meanwhile, some 200 police officers have been deployed in
front of the KPU office on Jl. Imam Bonjol, Central Jakarta to
prevent possible demonstrations from supporters of political
parties that failed the verification.