Lists of legislative candidates tardy

Lists of legislative candidates tardy

JAKARTA (JP): Only two of the 48 parties -- The National
Awakening Party (PKB) and the Indonesian People's Party (Pari) --
look set to meet Tuesday's deadline for submission of a list of
legislative candidates to the National Elections Committee (PPI).

Committee chairman Jacob Tobing said on Monday the PPI would
be saddled with paper work in coming weeks, because parties had
failed to meet the deadline.

"But this is a consequence of an election with a limited time
frame for arrangements," he said.

The committee will announce a temporary list of legislative
candidates on May 12 and a permanent one on May 19, the day
marking the end of the campaign period.

Jacob said the committee would tolerate submission of names
until May 12, with changes permissible up to May 18.

KPU spokesman Djohermansyah Djohan said PKB submitted a list
of legislative candidates for all 27 provinces, while Pari
presented candidates for 20 provinces.

"We will wait up until midnight on Tuesday. We are ready to
add to our workforce to deal with the paperwork. There is a
marked tendency for parties to submit lists on the deadline."

Meanwhile, members of the General Elections Commission (KPU)
who recently surveyed poll preparations in provinces, reported
that most provincial social political affairs chiefs had taken
over provincial elections committees' tasks or interfered too
much in their affairs.

"(Elections committees from) Central, West and East Java,
Sumatra, Kalimantan and Sulawesi, as well as the East and West
Nusa Tenggara committees have complained about the domination of
social political affairs chiefs," said deputy chairman of KPU
Adnan Buyung Nasution.

"This is wrong. We will issue a letter to all provincial
elections committees to ensure all officials are free to perform
their duties... there is no need for bureaucrats to interfere in
the process."

In Yogyakarta, only four parties had submitted lists of local
legislature candidates to the provincial elections committee --
the Love Peace Party, the Deliberation, Work and Cooperation
Party (MKGR), the United Development Party (PPP) and the
Indonesian National Party led by Supeni (PNI-Supeni).

Committee chairman Nur Achmad said parties had cited the
difficulty of recruiting candidates. "In the past, candidates
were appointed by their central boards," he said.

Meanwhile, Eep Saefulloh Fatah, a former member of the Team of
Eleven, the group who paved the way for the KPU, said the public
should be provided with all necessary information about the
elections.

"It is strange that many people living near Jakarta are yet to
know the number of parties contesting the elections," he said at
a seminar on election supervision in Bandung, West Java, on
Monday.

He emphasized that public acceptance of the elections' results
would depend not only on arrangements and preparations for the
polls, but also on public participation.

In Surabaya, East Java, parties publicized their platforms to
residents on Monday. Parties set up stands in the Surabaya Plaza
parking lot and gave away leaflets, T-shirts, flags and other
party merchandise.

Visitors shunned the Golkar Party stand, but flocked to stands
belonging to the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI
Perjuangan), the PKB and the National Mandate Party (PAN).
(rms/edt/43/nur/swa)