Legislators demand more seats for Maluku

Legislators demand more seats for Maluku

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Six legislators from Maluku complained on Tuesday about the loss
of seats in the House of Representatives for the province, and
urged the General Elections Commission (KPU) to abide by the
newly passed elections law.

Freddy Latumahina of the Golkar Party insisted that Maluku,
which was split into the provinces of Maluku and North Maluku in
2002, should receive six seats in the legislature in 2004, as
stipulated in the elections law.

"We demand the KPU implement the elections law correctly and
review the allocation of seats in the House. This review will
avoid any new problems," he said during a hearing with the KPU on
Tuesday.

Law No. 12/2003 on legislative elections stipulates that new
provinces will receive three seats in the House in the 2004
elections, while established provinces will receive the same
number of seats as they did in the 1999 elections.

However, while new provinces will get three legislative seats
each, their parent provinces will receive the same number of
seats as in 1999, minus three.

Maluku, for example, had six legislative seats in 1999 but
will have only three in 2004, after giving up three seats to
North Maluku. North Sulawesi, which in 1999 had seven seats, will
receive only four in 2004 after losing three seats to the newly
established Gorontalo province.

Parent provinces that have seen their populations increase,
however, will get additional legislative seats in 2004.

The KPU has scheduled the legislative elections for April 5,
2004, with a total of 550 legislative seats up for grabs.

Fellow Maluku legislators Thahir Saimima, A.N. Radjawane,
Frans Matruty, Aziz Pattisahusiwa and Alexander Litaay of the
Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) are also
unhappy that Maluku will have three fewer seats in the
legislature in 2004.

Alexander said the stipulations on legislative seats in the
elections law was part of efforts to balance the distribution of
seats between provinces in Java and those outside Java.

"The KPU should understand the background of the law. The KPU
should also remember that Maluku was one of eight provinces that
declared the country's independence in 1945. Therefore, reducing
the number of our seats will insult the people of Maluku," he
said.

Six political parties in Maluku filed a complaint with the KPU
on Monday and vowed to boycott next year's elections if the
commission did not review its seat allocation.

KPU officials Nazaruddin Sjamsuddin and Anas Purbaningrum have
called on the legislators to remain calm over the matter.

Meanwhile, KPU member Mulyana W. Kusumah said the commission
might delay the deadline for political parties to register for
the 2004 elections from Oct. 9 to Oct. 19. He said moving back
the deadline would be necessary if the Ministry of Justice and
Human Rights is unable to complete the process of verifying
political parties on schedule.

Mulyana said the later deadline would only apply to political
parties verified in the third screening by the justice and human
rights ministry.

However, he said that should the deadline be pushed back,
political parties verified in the third screening by the ministry
would have limited time to prepare their legislative candidates,
as the KPU would announce those parties that qualified for next
year's elections on Dec. 2.

The Ministry of Justice and Human Rights hopes to complete the
verification of 66 parties in the third and last phase of party
screening by Oct. 12 or Oct. 13.

So far, 18 parties have been verified by the ministry.