LIPI against limitation on candidates

LIPI against limitation on candidates

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Researchers from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) are
calling on the House of Representatives (DPR) to allow all
political parties contesting the 2004 elections to nominate their
own presidential candidates.

They also suggested that legislative and presidential
elections be organized all at the same time.

The presidential election bill, being deliberated by the
House, stipulates that only parties or coalitions garnering 20
percent of the legislative seats are allowed to field candidates
in the country's first ever direct presidential election in 2004.

Minister of Home Affairs Hari Sabarno, whose ministry drafted
the bill, has defended the stipulation, arguing that the
regulation was aimed at ensuring that the elected president would
have the backing of the House, thus creating a strong government.

However, LIPI analysts have rejected that argument, saying
that the legitimacy of a president chosen through a direct
presidential election came from the people, not from House
members.

They also said that the position of the president under the
amended Constitution was relatively powerful as he or she could
not be impeached without the approval of the Constitutional
Court.

"Therefore, presidential candidates should not always come
from parties that have a lot of seats in the House. Even without
the House's support, a president elected directly by the people
would have a strong legitimacy," LIPI chairman Umar Anggara Jeni
said during a hearing with the House's special committee
deliberating the presidential election bill here on Tuesday.

Umar was accompanied by fellow LIPI researchers Dewi Fortuna
Anwar, Syamsuddin Haris and Ikrar Nusa Bhakti.

The hearing was presided over by committee vice chairman Yusuf
Muhammad of the National Awakening Party (PKB).

The General Elections Commission (KPU) has selected April 5,
2004 as the date for the legislative election. It has also
announced that the two-phase presidential election would be held
between June and August 2004.

More than 230 political parties have registered with the
Ministry of Justice and Human Rights and all have pledged to
participate in the 2004 general election.

There has been speculation that with so many participants, it
would be difficult for any presidential candidate to garner the
majority vote needed to form a government.

Syamsuddin has criticized the 20 percent requirement, claiming
that it did not have a political or legal reason.

All political parties contesting the elections should be
allowed to nominate presidential candidates, he said. "Should
there be a limitation, it should be two percent," he said,
referring to a stipulation in the 1999 Election Law, which was
replaced by the 2003 Election Law.

"The electoral threshold is two percent. Therefore political
parties have to secure at least two percent of the House seats to
nominate presidential candidates," he said.

Syamsuddin also said that the elections of the president and
legislative members had to be held simultaneously to cut short
the period of political tension.

Dewi Fortuna Anwar, meanwhile, emphasized that lawmakers had
to uphold fairness and that a regulation should not be designed
merely to get rid of competitors.

The LIPI experts also suggested that all presidential
candidates declare their wealth to enable the public to elect
non-corrupt figures.