KPU worries about late party screening

KPU worries about late party screening

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Less than half of 32 provincial elections commission (KPUDs) have
submitted the results of their field verification on 40 political
parties, raising fears the slow progress would severely affect
preparations for next year's elections.

KPU deputy chairman Ramlan Surbakti said over the weekend that
only 14 provincial KPUDs had submitted their reports by Saturday,
two days after the deadline lapsed last Thursday.

Ramlan said other KPUDs were expected to hand in their factual
verification results in the next few days with Papua being the
latest on Dec. 6.

All 32 provincial KPUDs were supposed to submit their reports
on Nov. 27, but only four -- Bali, Lampung, South Sulawesi, and
East Kalimantan -- made the deadline.

Central Java, Jambi and North Sulawesi KPUDs submitted their
reports on Saturday.

Ramlan said that KPU would announce in stages political
parties eligible for next year's elections. The commission had
planned to announce the names of political parties endorsed by
the KPU to join next year's elections on Dec. 2, 2003.

Ramlan had said earlier that transportation difficulties,
especially during the Idul Fitri celebrations when millions of
people across the country travel to their hometowns, was one of
the causes of the delay.

Asked whether the announcement of the numerical order of the
parties on Dec. 8 would be affected by the slow process of
factual verification, Ramlan said he did not think so.

Should the announcement be delayed because of the slow process
of factual screening, the nomination period for legislator
hopefuls would be shortened, he said. He did not go into details.

According to the KPU schedule, political parties will start
taking forms for legislative aspirants from KPU and forms for
provincial and regental/municipal hopefuls from KPUDs from Dec. 9
through Dec. 19.

The parties must return the forms between Dec. 22 and Dec. 29,
with verification by KPU scheduled from Dec. 23 through Jan. 5.

The screening results will be announced from Dec. 27 through
Jan. 12, 2004, with the chance given for political parties to
improve the requirements submitted for legislative aspirants from
Dec. 29 through Jan 19.

KPU will decide the final list of legislative aspirants on
Jan. 27, and announce it between Jan. 28 and Jan. 29.

Some non-governmental organizations and scholars have
criticized KPU for not meeting its schedule for the 2004 election
preparations.

Earlier, KPU failed to complete on time the national
population and voter census, party administrative screening and
electoral district mapping.

Indonesia will hold its legislative election on April 5 and
two-stage direct presidential elections on July 5 and Sept. 20.

Ramlan also said that KPU was planning to hold a plenary
session on Monday to make a decision on the factual screening of
several parties, endorse its electoral district mapping
instructions, and instructions on the procedure for the
nomination of legislators.

Meanwhile, some parties, such as the Bhinneka Indonesia Party
(PBI), the Gotong Royong Party and the Indonesian Democratic
Catholic Party (PKDI) have filed objections with KPU over press
reports that they were among the list of 13 parties that might
not qualify for next year's election.

PKDI had asked KPU to review the outcome of factual
verification in Bali as the party was disqualified by the Bali
KPUD due to one membership card problem, Ramlan said.

"KPUDs will respond any objections from political parties that
think they should have passed the factual screening," he said.