Lawmakers deny PKB's backroom deal claim

Lawmakers deny PKB's backroom deal claim

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

At least two lawmakers denied on Friday any backroom deals
during the deliberation of the existing presidential Election Law,
claiming that individual interests have never been taken into
account in discussing and endorsing any law.

"The deliberation process is not aimed at giving an advantage
to certain figures. We arrive at a consensus after taking many
aspects into consideration," Alihardi Kiaidemak of the United
Development Party (PPP) faction told The Jakarta Post here.

Irsyad Sudiro of The Golkar Party agreed with Alihardi, saying
that requirements for presidential candidates were set up for the
sake of national interests alone.

"We do not make a law to benefit or to hinder certain
individuals. We make laws to build a system," he stated.

The two House of Representatives legislators were commenting
on a statement by National Awakening Party (PKB) leader Alwi
Shihab that a number of backroom deals were reached among party
factions during the deliberation of the presidential election
bill.

According to Alwi, House factions agreed that a candidate
would not be required to hold a university degree so that
Megawati Soekarnoputri could become eligible, the word
"defendant" dropped to accommodate Golkar leader Akbar Tandjung,
the 15 percent electoral threshold was lowered to 3 percent for
Amien Rais, and the capability to read was dropped for
Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid.

Megawati, the incumbent President, does not have a university
degree, while Akbar, was sentenced to three years in jail for
corruption before the Supreme Court cleared him in February.

Amien, on the other hand, is leader of the National Mandate
Party (PAN), which garnered only 6.5 percent of the votes in the
April 5 legislative election, while Gus Dur, chief of PKB's board
of patrons, has poor eyesight.

The General Elections Commission (KPU) earlier issued a decree
requiring presidential candidates and their running mates to have
at least 50 percent visibility, a requirement seen by PKB and
other pro-democracy activists as an attempt to disqualify nearly
blind Gus Dur from running in the country's first direct
presidential election on July 5.

Alihardi and Irsyad said the presidential election law was
open to interpretation. "It is not so strange for Alwi to make
such an interpretation given the fact that Gus Dur is PKB's
presidential candidate," said Alihardi.

Meanwhile, supporters of Gus Dur intensified their pressure
against the KPU in East Java on Friday, prompting security
officers to deploy more police around the KPU offices in the
province, the stronghold of PKB.

The commission told PKB earlier that Gus Dur was unfit to run
due to his poor eyesight. The KPU will officially announce the
eligibility of each candidate on Saturday (today).

Gus Dur's supporters in Pasuruan, East Java, had threatened to
occupy the KPU office there until Gus Dur was cleared to run.

Moch. Sodiq, chairman of the regency branch of KPU in
Pasuruan, said that he had also conveyed the demand of Gus Dur's
supporters to the KPU in Jakarta.

KPU Surabaya member Ulfa said protesters must not try to
interfere with the activities of the commission or they could be
charged with disrupting the election.

Meanwhile, hundreds of Muslim clerics (kyai) and their
students have staged rallies outside the KPU building in Cirebon,
West Java over the past two days.

Members of Garda Bangsa, a security wing of PKB, also were
present at the rally to put pressure on the KPU.

The angry PKB supporters also "sealed off" the KPU building
with huge banners in a show of support for Gus Dur candidacy.

Nasiruddin Sidiq, principal of the Kali Wadas Muslim boarding
school, said he and his followers would continue to surround the
KPU office until the KPU showed good faith about reviewing the
"discriminative" regulation.