Minor political parties seek equal electoral nominations

Minor political parties seek equal electoral nominations

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja and Debbie A. Lubis, The Jakarta Post,
Jakarta

Minor parties want equal clout in nominating presidential
candidates, but major parties will likely limit the number of
candidates by setting up a minimum electoral threshold for
parties allowed to join the presidential race.

Analysts have joined the fray by proposing independent
candidates be allowed to contest in the presidential election,
but both minor and major parties are reluctant to allow
independent candidates.

Fearing that its aspiring presidential candidate Amien Rais
may be kept out of the race, Patrialis Akbar, secretary general
of the National Mandate Party, proposed that all political
parties in the 2004 general elections be given the same
opportunity to nominate their own candidates.

"Should we all meet the requirements needed to join the 2004
general elections, it would only be fair that we be allowed to
nominate our own presidential candidates," Patrialis said on
Saturday.

He even proposed that regulations on presidential elections be
included in the general elections bill currently being debated at
the House of Representatives.

"We want to ensure that major parties don't have any leeway to
block us from competing in the presidential election," he said.

Justice Party chairman Hidayat Nur Wahid joined Patrialis in
calling on the government to insert clauses on the presidential
election in the general election bill, and asked major parties
not to limit the number of candidates for their own interests.

"There should be a single general election bill, which
includes the direct presidential election," said Hidayat.

The government, however, has insisted on submitting a separate
bill for the presidential election so as not to delay
deliberations on the general election bill. The government is to
submit the presidential election bill by year's end, along with
the bill on legislative structure.

Under the amended constitution, the next president and vice
president should be elected directly by the people. Nevertheless,
the country's two largest political parties -- the Indonesian
Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) and the Golkar
Party -- want to limit the number of candidates for the
presidential race by installing a threshold for nomination.

Some have speculated that the two parties want only those who
have gotten at least 20 percent of votes to be allowed in the
presidential race.

Roy B.B. Janis, chairman of PDI Perjuangan at the House, said
that he did not oppose minor parties' nominating their own
candidates, but said they should be "realistic with regards their
capabilities."

"Even the six major parties are still doubtful as to whether
they can meet all the election requirements," Roy said.

Roy was also pessimistic about the possibility of independent
candidates.

"A President is a political representative, so he or she must
represent political parties, not individuals," he said.

Roy also ruled out the idea of combining the general election
bill with the presidential election bill, saying that it was
addressing two different things.

Political analyst J. Kristiadi, a political analyst of the
Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), agreed
with Roy and said that it was impossible to combine the two bills
because it took time to debate them while the House was already
running out of time.

He added that the presidential election would be difficult to
conduct if there were 50 presidential candidates. Therefore,
there should be a strict requirement for any party to nominate a
presidential candidate.

He also said that there could be up to 20 candidates if the
electoral threshold was set at two percent, but the election
would be a lot easier to manage if the threshold was set at
between 20 and 30 percent.

Kristiadi, however, preferred to set the electoral threshold
at two or three percent, to give more room for potential
candidates from minor political parties.

He also suggested that there could be an external presidential
candidate. However, there must be strict rules in allowing an
independent candidate to join the race, such as requiring the
candidate to collect support from at least two or three million
people from two-thirds of the country's provinces.

This way, Kristiadi said, the country would be able to select
the best potential candidates to run join the race and select
from a pair of them to run the country.