Parties given eight more days to trade votes

JAKARTA (JP): The General Elections Committee has given the three parties eight more days to decide whether they will trade votes to increase the number of seats in the House of Representatives won by the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI).

"We'll let them discuss vote trading for PDI until June 25," the committee's secretary-general Suryatna Subrata said yesterday.

"The initiative for vote-trading plans should come from the contestants. The elections committee will not interfere and will only facilitate discussions."

He acknowledged that the electoral laws did not cover vote trading, and that the General Elections Institute was not authorized to initiate such deals.

This was a turnaround by the government which stated earlier that the victorious party, Golkar, could only give votes to parties that polled badly if the parties had agreed to a vote trade-off deal before the election.

The PDI recorded an all-time low in this year's election, securing only 10 seats in the House. It won 56 seats in the 1992 election.

Golkar chairman Harmoko has offered the PDI votes to increase its number of seats in the House, but PDI leaders have refused his charity. The United Development Party (PPP) has said that it should get the first offer for vote grants because it came second in the election.

Golkar's election strategy chief, Rully Chaerul Azwar, told The Jakarta Post yesterday that vote grants could only be initiated by the elections institute.

"It's part of the election institute's job," he said.

In response to Suryatna's statement, PPP deputy chairman Jusuf Syakir said the government could not force the parties to help increase the PDI's number of seats.

"A consensus may be reached later, but it will only tarnish the government's image because it is (breaking) the law," Jusuf said.

PDI secretary-general Buttu R. Hutapea confirmed yesterday that his party would not accept Golkar's offer of votes.

"We'll make do with the votes we have earned, no matter how few. There are still several days of ballot counting remaining, it is possible there will be some changes in our results," he said.

Meeting

Suryatna denied any knowledge of a report of a meeting of the three parties, which concluded that Golkar would give the PDI three House seats.

"I don't know of any such thing. They (the parties) have not told the committee about it," he said.

Rully also denied the meeting had happened.

"There was only a meeting of the Election Supervision Committee (yesterday) afternoon," he said.

The deadline for the approval of poll results for the House of Representatives is June 24.

The National Elections Committee is scheduled to announce the final poll results on June 23. According to electoral rules, the results will remain valid without all three parties' approval.

Provisional results issued by the elections institute show that Golkar has won 325 seats in the House, PPP 89 and PDI only 10 after the counting of about 115 million ballots.

Analysts have said the PDI needs at least three more seats to operate effectively in the House. One seat for a deputy House Speaker post, one to lead the party in the House and one so the PDI has a representative in the 11th House commission.

"(Without additional seats for the PDI), the House's internal regulations, which stipulate a mechanism for legislative activities, must be reviewed," Suryatna said. (imn/amd)

Endorse -- Page 2

Vote rigging -- Page 4