Local parties must be recognized

JAKARTA: The presence of local parties must be acknowledged in the bill on general elections, said noted lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis.

Local parties must also be allowed to participate in local elections, he said on Monday.

"We have been advocating people across the country to establish local parties for participating in local elections," he said.

Todung said local parties didn't need automatically to become national parties, as they would only participate in local elections initially.

Once a local party grows and becomes established, however, it could become a national party, like the Green Party phenomenon in Germany, he explained.

He said the acknowledgment of local parties would also resolve the political issue of the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM), since as a local party, they could give voice to their political aspirations. --Antara