MPR session may be delayed: Habibie

MPR session may be delayed: Habibie

JAKARTA (JP): With the General Elections Commission (KPU)
deciding to delay announcing final poll results, President B.J.
Habibie said on Friday subsequent stages of the June 7 general
election, including the General Session of the People's
Consultative Assembly (MPR), would likely be delayed by a month.

"Because the swearing in of new members of the House of
Representatives/People's Consultative Assembly will likely be
delayed from its original date of Aug. 29 to the end of September
or the beginning of October, the MPR General Session will
subsequently be delayed," the President said as quoted by Deputy
House Speaker Abdul Gafur.

Speaking to the press after meeting with Habibie at Merdeka
Palace, Gafur said the predicted delay of the General Session was
based on the KPU's decision to postpone the announcement of poll
results from July 7 to July 21.

He said the President, who is the ruling Golkar Party's
presidential nominee, foresaw the presidential election being
held in December.

Considering the time needed for the leaders of the 48 parties
which contested the elections and the chairmen of all 27
provincial elections committees to come to Jakarta, the National
Elections Committee (PPI) announced on Friday the national vote
count would begin next Tuesday.

"We have to make sure that all party leaders and the chairmen
of all 27 provincial elections committees will be here to attend
the PPI plenary meeting and witness the start of the national
vote count next Tuesday," PPI chairman Jacob Tobing announced.

With the Wednesday deadline to announce and ratify the poll
results looming, the KPU agreed on Thursday to allow the PPI to
begin the national vote count after 10 days of uncertainty.

A KPU regulation stipulates that the national vote count
should have begun on June 21.

While it remained unconfirmed that all official poll results
already received by the committee had been cleared of fraud
charges, Tobing said the PPI had received the recapitulated poll
results from 16 provinces.

The provinces which have submitted their results are Aceh,
North Sumatra, West Sumatra, Jambi, Bengkulu, Lampung, West Java,
Yogyakarta, Central Java, East Java, Bali, East Timor, East
Kalimantan, South Sulawesi, North Sulawesi and Irian Jaya.

Tobing said provincial elections committees still had the
opportunity to rehold polls before the Monday deadline.

He said polls would be reheld in Pasaman regency in West
Sumatra, Bitung mayoralty in North Sulawesi, Bolaang Mongondouw
in North Sulawesi and Alor in East Nusa Tenggara.

TNI's neutrality

Also on Friday, Minister of Defense and Security/Indonesian
Military (TNI) Commander Gen. Wiranto said the military would
maintain its distance from all political parties which contested
the June 7 elections, but would play an active role in the
presidential election.

"TNI will maintain its neutrality, but at the same time will
also exercise its voting rights in the General Session of the
MPR, including the presidential election," he said during a
hearing with House Commission I for security and defense, law,
politics and information.

He said the military and the National Police would be
proactive in seeking solutions to a possible deadlock in the
presidential election.

Several political observers and leading political parties,
including Golkar Party, have called on the military not to vote
in the presidential election to ensure its political neutrality.

Separately, eight Muslim-based political parties said they
would not endorse the final poll results unless the police
immediately opened an investigation into electoral law violations
allegedly committed by Tobing.

Representatives of the United Development Party (PPP), the
Justice Party (PK), the Crescent Star Party (PBB), the Nahdlatul
Ummat Party (PNU), the Islamic Community Party (PUI), the
Indonesian United Islam Party 1905 (PSII-1905), the Indonesian
Masyumi Islamic Political Party (PPIM) and the Muslim Community
Awakening Party (PKU) lodged a complaint against Tobing at
National Police Headquarters.

"We'll wait until July 8 and if the police do not follow up on
our report, none of us will sign the final poll results," PPIM
chairman Abdullah Hehamahua said after meeting with the chief of
the National Police's intelligence directorate, Brig. Gen. Subono
Adi.

The party representatives believe Tobing bypassed regulations
governing vote-sharing agreements among political parties when he
approved a vote-sharing deal made by 10 parties.

Abdullah said the vote-sharing agreement was not signed by
authorized party officials and it was submitted after the May 31
deadline for such agreements.

As of 8:30 p.m. on Friday, based on the KPU's provisional vote
count, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI
Perjuangan) remained in the lead with 23.4 million votes. In
second position was Golkar Party with 12.46 million votes,
followed by the National Awakening Party (PKB) with 11.2 million
votes.(rms/prb/emf/imn/amd)