'Organizing polls is President's privilege'

'Organizing polls is President's privilege'

JAKARTA (JP): Golkar has dismissed the call from the United
Development Party (PPP) and the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI)
that they be involved in organizing the general elections.

Deputy chairman of the ruling political grouping, Waskito
Reksosoedirdjo, said yesterday that, by law, the authority and
responsibility for the holding of general elections rest
exclusively with the President.

Contestants in the general elections, namely the PDI, the PPP
and Golkar, do not have the right to determine whether they
should be included in committees established to organize the
polls, he said.

The decree of the People's Consultative Assembly No. II/1993
states that "the only person in charge of holding the general
election is the President," Waskito told a press conference
during a break in Golkar's annual leadership meeting.

The two minority parties have long called on the government to
be included in the preparation for the holding of general
elections.

Leaders of the two parties have often expressed suspicion of
unfair practices in vote-counting procedures during previous
polls. They have also often stated that involving them in the
organizing committees would ensure more fair competition.

Waskito, however, said that there's no legal basis for the
request. "Their requests to participate in organizing the general
election are not reasonable," he said.

"It is also the President, according to the decree, who
determines technicalities and appoints personnel to organize the
general elections," he added.

Both the PPP and the PDI have also insisted that "honest and
fair" should be added to the principles governing the 1997 polls.
The existing law stipulates only that general elections be
conducted in a "direct, general, free and confidential" manner.

"The 1985 law on general election does not recognize any other
principle than "direct, general, free and confidential," Waskito
said.

Golkar has swept all previous five general elections, winning
at least two-thirds of the total votes each time, while the PPP
and the PDI came second and third respectively.

Later yesterday, another Golkar leader reiterated the
grouping's intention to push its proposal that outdoor campaign
rallies be banned in the run up to the 1997 polls.

"Do we have to repeat the methods (used in previous
elections), when each election contestant mobilized its
members ... to go to the sports stadium for rallies?" deputy
chairman Abdul Gafur asked.

He said that the election campaigns would be more efficient
and effective if each political party is allowed to speak about
its programs only at indoor gatherings.

Announcing the plan, Golkar chairman Harmoko said on Tuesday
that it is time for Indonesia to develop forms of election
campaigning that are more "communicative".

Gafur, however, did not completely rule out the possibility of
contestants being permitted to hold rallies prior to the 1997
elections.

He referred to Law No.1/1985, Government Regulation No.
37/1990 and Presidential Decree No. 8/1992, all on general
elections, which allow gatherings, rallies, and the dissemination
of posters and banners. (imn)

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