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.