Parties given chance to meet quota for women

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The General Elections Commission (KPU) said on Tuesday the 24 political parties contesting the 2004 elections would be allowed to add more women to their lists of legislative candidates if they had yet to meet the 30 percent quota of women aspirants.

KPU deputy chairman Ramlan Surbakti said the parties had until Jan. 19 to meet the quota and adjust the required documents for their legislative candidates, even though the Monday deadline for them to submit the names of their candidates had passed.

He said the KPU would verify the lists of candidates submitted by the 24 parties to determine whether, among other things, they met the 30 percent quota for women or not.

"We will inform the parties if they have not fulfilled the 30 percent quota of women candidates and give them a chance to add more names of women to the lists," Ramlan said in his office in Central Jakarta.

Based on KPU Instruction No. 100/2003, the commission will verify the lists of legislative candidates by Jan. 5, 2004, and inform the parties of the results on Jan. 12 at the latest.

Without public scrutiny, the KPU is scheduled to announce the final lists of aspiring legislators on Jan. 27 through electronic and print media.

Senior politicians have acknowledged that many parties may have failed to meet the 30 percent quota for women as recommended by the Election Law.

Even those that managed to meet the quota placed their women legislative candidates at the bottom of their lists, giving them low priority.

The United Development Party (PPP) has only 137 female candidates out of its 628 aspiring legislators (21 percent), the Prosperous Peace Party (PDS) has only 58 women out of 268 legislative candidates (21 percent) and the Reform Star Party (PBR) has 63 women out of 294 candidates (21 percent).

KPU member Anas Urbaningrum, who chairs a team to oversee the registration of legislative candidates, confirmed that the 24 parties had been given more time to amend their documents and add more women to their lists.

However, the parties are prohibited from changing the numerical order of their candidates on the lists, he said.

Anas also said that during the verification period, the KPU would also evaluate other requirements that the candidates had to meet, including submitting bills of health from doctors from recognized hospitals.

"On the first day of screening, we discovered that many aspirants had not submitted medical reports," he said.

Ramlan also said the KPU had increased the budget for disseminating information on the 2004 elections from Rp 75 billion (US$8.853,289) to Rp 115 billion.

"Rp 75 billion will be distributed to KPUDs (local KPU offices), while the additional Rp 40 billion will be used to promote the elections through electronic media," he said.

He said the KPU would start disseminating information on the elections through the media by mid-January.

The general election will be held on April 5, 2004 and the two-round presidential election on July 5 and Sept. 20.