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)