Legislators ask KPU to review seats allocation

Legislators ask KPU to review seats allocation

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Legislators called on the General Elections Commission (KPU) on
Wednesday to review its decision on the allocation of 550 seats
in the House of Representatives (DPR) in the 2004 election,
arguing that the current arrangement was unfair to provinces
outside Java.

The House seat allocation controversy revolves around the loss
of legislative seats for provinces split into two in the past few
years.

Provinces that had been partitioned are located outside Java
like Maluku, North Sulawesi and Papua.

Maluku, for example, got six seats in the 1999 elections, but
in the 2004 election it will get only three seats as it has to
give three remaining seats to the province of North Maluku,
originally part of its territory.

Papua obtained 13 seats in the 1999 elections, but will be
reduced to 10 after giving three to the new province of West
Irian Jaya.

North Sulawesi got seven seats in the previous election, but
it give three of those seats to the new province of Gorontalo.

"To avoid the current problem from recurring, KPU should first
give old provinces the seats they got in the 1999 elections, and
give three seats to each new province.

"The remaining seats then can be distributed to provinces to
make a total of 550 seats as stipulated in the election law,"
Ferry Mursidan Baldan said after a hearing with KPU on seat
allocation.

According to him, this method would ensure the spirit of
fairness for regions outside Java.

During the hearing, Alexander Litaay of the Indonesian
Democratic Party of Struggle, Thahir Saimima of the United
Development Party (PPP), and several other legislators also
called on the KPU to review its seat allocation decision.

Thahir even reminded the KPU that the House had stipulated in
the election law that existing provinces must secure a similar
number of seats as in the 1999 election.

The hearing was adjourned until Thursday evening to produce a
final recommendation from the House about the seat allocation.

However, KPU member Anas Purbaningrum said that KPU could not
implement such a suggestion because some provinces would get a
seat quota of more than 425,000 people per seat, which violated
the election law.

In order to secure a seat in the House, a candidate has to
garner between 200,000 and 425,000 votes in the upcoming
election.

Anas said the KPU defined the existing province as stipulated
in the election law as a combination of parent provinces and
newly established provinces.

Thus, he said, Maluku in 1999 consisted of the present Maluku
and new province of North Maluku.

Under such a definition, Maluku, which got six seats in the
1999 election, must give three of its seats to the new province
of North Maluku to meet with the election law requirement, he
said.