Muslim parties protest PPI over vote sharing

JAKARTA (JP): The National Elections Committee (PPI) again postponed the allocation of seats from the June 7 poll due to a row over a vote-sharing deal involving eight Muslim-based parties.

The vote-sharing deal in contention, which groups the large United Development Party (PPP) with seven small Muslim parties, objected to the method employed by the committee in calculating the seat allocation. They said the committee's decision to pool the seats and divide them by a certain divisor was unfair and would reduce its share of the seats at the next session of the House of Representatives.

"If the elections committee uses its own method, we will get only 39 seats ... while if our method is used, we will gain at least 19 more seats," the group's spokesman, Abdullah Hehamahua, said at a media briefing at the United Development Party (PPP) headquarters in Central Jakarta on Wednesday.

The block appears set to get a total of more than 40 seats in the 500-member parliament. These seats are in addition to any seats that parties win in their own right.

Parties were allowed to pool their votes, but now have to sort out how many seats each will get.

Abdullah, who is also chairman of the New Masyumi Party, said the eight Muslim parties had agreed on July 8 to use ranking in determining the seat allocation.

"It will be unfair for small parties inside the group to supply only their remaining votes but gain nothing and that is why we have agreed to develop our own method," he said.

The General Elections Commission (KPU) recognizes only vote- sharing deals and technical rulings such as the method for seat allocation that was established before the June 7 poll.

Nurmachmudi Ismail, chairman of the Justice Party (PK), claimed his group had recently reported the method of their choice to the commission and the latter had accepted it.

"After the meeting between the parties and KPU Chairman Rudini, the latter sent a radiogram to PPI and all election committees at provincial and regency levels to recognize our method," he said.

He questioned the elections committee for ignoring the commission's approval of the chosen method.

The elections committee recognized only two vote-pooling deals made by the eight parties and by the Indonesian Democrats Alliance Party (PADI), Love the Nation Democratic Party (PDKB) and Indonesian Unity in Diversity Party (PBI).

PPI chairman Jacob Tobing acknowledged there were disagreements among members in the body, but promised to complete all tasks by Friday so his office could announce the final seat allocation for poll contestants.

"It is most likely to be sometime next week," he said.

The committee was expected to detail this week how many seats each party won under the complicated voting system used in Indonesia's first democratic election in over three decades.

Megawati Soekarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) won the election with about 34 percent of the vote. The ruling Golkar Party came in second with 22 percent.

PDI Perjuangan is expected to receive about 154 seats and Golkar, which never lost an election during the 32-year rule of former president Soeharto, 120 seats.

PPP is expected to take about 59 seats in its own right, in addition to some from the pool.

Squabbling by minor parties facing political oblivion delayed the declaration of the vote by almost two months until President B.J. Habibie stepped in last week and declared the count valid. Attention is now turning to November's presidential election, which is shaping up as a showdown between Megawati and Habibie.

Meanwhile, Antara reported the General Elections Commission (KPU) had accumulated more than Rp 12 billion in arrears to the state-owned postal company, PT Pos Indonesia.

"The arrears were incurred from the sending of election forms and KPU dossiers to the 27 provinces and other routine costs," the director general for post and telecommunications, Sasmito Dirdjo, told the media on Wednesday.

Sasmito pointed out that based on the special agreement dated Feb. 24 between KPU and PT Pos, the postal company was responsible for the sending of KPU documents to only nine provinces. In reality, however, PT Pos sent out the election documents to all the provinces because the private companies appointed were unable to do the job, he said.

Sasmito said his company had decided to take responsibility for the sending of the documents to the provinces to help the election process.

KPU spokesman Djoeharmansyah denied the reported debt. He said the office would pay only claims with supporting documents.

In Yogyakarta, Loekman Sutrisno, a professor of sociology at the Gadjah Mada University, alleged that most of the more than 400 social organizations which offered their representatives to KPU for the next People's Consultative Assembly had no commitment to the nation.

"Most of them are 'hit and run' organizations which fight for their own interests," he said on Wednesday. (44/har/nur/rms)