Parties told to adopt to new law before elections
Parties told to adopt to new law before elections
Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Political parties contesting the 2004 general elections are urged
to meet requirements stipulated in Law No. 31/2002 on political
parties immediately, so as not to disrupt the preparations for
the elections.
After fulfilling the requirements, the status of those
political parties will be verified by the Ministry of Justice and
Human Rights and the General Elections Commission (KPU).
Unfortunately, Law No. 31/2002 gives until September for
political parties to comply with the legislation.
KPU member Hamid Awaluddin criticized the ruling, which he
said was too lenient.
"I am worried that all parties will wait until September for
verification. If this happens, it will create a burden for the
KPU and may disrupt the schedule," Hamid said in a discussion
here.
Ryaas Rasyid, an architect of the 1999 elections, shared
Hamid's view.
"Why has the government given such a long adaptation period?
We must remember that we have limited time," Ryaas said at the
same discussion.
They were commenting on the transitory provision of Law No.
31/2002 that stipulates that all political parties are required
to comply with the law within nine months of its endorsement.
The new rules require political parties to have a legal
certificate, platform, executive boards in 50 percent of the
total number of provinces, and 50 percent of the regencies.
Hamid, a lecturer at the Hasanuddin University in South
Sulawesi, added that the transitory provision could encourage
political parties to delay verification until September.
He hoped that all political parties contesting in the
elections would be ready for verification by March this year.
According to him, 237 political parties are registered at the
justice ministry. Those parties will undergo administrative
verification before undergoing further verification by KPU to
obtain their "passport" to contest in the elections.
Ryaas who chairs the newly founded Nation's Democratic Party
(PDB) also questioned how the KPU would verify the requirement in
the election bill that all parties must have 1,000 members in
each regency.
He emphasized it would not be difficult for political parties
to have 1,000 members at the regency level, but he questioned how
the KPU would verify it.
"This is a technical matter, but it can affect substantial
issues," Ryaas said, demanding that legislators deliberating the
bill downsize the rule to 100 members.
Commenting on the demand, deputy chairman of a committee
deliberating the elections bill, Chozin Chumaidy, said that the
article was open for discussion since it had not been passed into
law.
According to Chozin, the inclusion of that article was needed
to ensure the political parties contesting the elections have
supporters at the grassroots level.
He said that legislators were working on several crucial
issues, including synthesizing the proportional system with the
open-list of candidates, restrictions for state officials to join
campaign and electoral threshold.
The electoral threshold provision stipulates that political
parties that contested in the 1999 elections and won less than 2
percent of seats at the House are not allowed to contest in the
2004 elections.