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)