PDI holds out on endorsement of poll results

PDI holds out on endorsement of poll results

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) is
maintaining its threat not to approve election results because
its protests over electoral violations have gone unheeded, a
party official said yesterday.

Secretary-general Buttu Hutapea said his party would wait
until June 24 before making a final decision on whether to
maintain the policy, pending a response from the Election
Supervision Committee.

"We have not received any reports of approvals of election
results from our regency branches," Buttu said.

The PDI is the only party not to approve results. The United
Development Party (PPP) effectively backed down from its threat
not to approve results when it announced Tuesday that it would
devolve this decision to branches.

The dominant party, Golkar, assured of a sixth straight
victory, has not objected to the election results.

PDI announced after a post-election meeting last week that it
would reject election results if the government failed to handle
its complaints over alleged irregularities and take legal action
against violators.

Rejection of poll results would mean that PDI legislators
could not enter the House of Representatives.

The deadline for the approval of results in the country's 305
regencies was yesterday. It will be followed by the endorsement
of provincial election results from today through Tuesday. All
three parties' leadership boards are due to endorse final results
between June 18 and June 24.

The National Elections Committee is scheduled to announce the
final poll results on June 24. According to election rules, the
results will remain valid without the approval of all the
parties.

Provisional results issued by the General Elections Institute
show that Golkar has won the lion's share of House seats with
325. The PPP has won 89 and PDI has only 10 after the counting of
about 115 million ballots.

More than 124 million Indonesians were registered to vote on
May 29 to decide the allocation of 425 of the 500 seats in the
House of Representatives. The Armed Forces, whose members do not
vote, has been allotted 75 seats.

Buttu predicted the PDI could hold between three and six more
House seats when the election institute finishes counting
ballots. He said the seats might come from North Sumatra, Riau,
Jakarta, Bali, West Nusa Tenggara or East Kalimantan.

He denied that the additional seats would come from vote
trading with Golkar. He said the PDI would not beg for help from
rival parties.

The institute is still counting votes from abroad.

No reason

The General Elections Committee's deputy secretary-general,
Sutoyo N.K., said yesterday there was no acceptable reason for
the PDI to relinquish the House seats it had already won.

"It is impossible to just dissolve a party because of its
failure to obtain the minimum number of seats in the DPR
(House)," he said.

Quoting Article 1 of the 1985 Law on the House of
Representatives' Configuration, he said every party was
guaranteed at least five seats in the People's Consultative
Assembly.

Sutoyo, also the director-general for sociopolitical affairs
at the Ministry of Home Affairs, said the PDI's poor showing in
this year's election would not pose any problems for state
affairs.

"In past elections, there were occasions where political
parties failed to win seats in regional legislative councils. But
local administrations went on as usual," he said.

Sutoyo said the workings of the House would not be influenced
even if the PDI eventually relinquished its seats.

"We do not consider the PDI's statement as a threat," he said,
adding that the Election Supervision Committee had begun
investigating reports of cheating. (amd/imn)