PDI Perjuangan, Golkar register with KPU

PDI Perjuangan, Golkar register with KPU

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Two major political parties registered on Wednesday with the
General Election Commission (KPU) to contend the 2004 general
elections.

PDI Perjuangan Deputy Secretary General Pramono Anung, and
Golkar Chairman Akbar Tandjung and other party functionaries
requested the registration of their respective parties at the
KPU.

The National Mandate Party (PAN) took the lead early this
month when it registered with the KPU after undergoing a
verification process.

The two largest parties of the House of Representatives were
registered with the KPU after passing a screening test conducted
by the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights to verify that they
had met the legal and administrative requisites of the 2003
Political Parties Law.

The three were of the 84 political parties that have been
examined by the ministry to date. Of these, only 28 have passed
the screening test.

Those political parties registered with the KPU will undergo a
second round of the verification process in regards the legal and
administrative requirements to contend the elections.

The three parties are expected to pass the second round, since
they met the electoral threshold of winning two percent of House
seats in the 1999 elections.

"PDI Perjuangan is a contestant in the next elections, but we
will officially declare it on Dec. 2, together with the other
eligible parties," KPU member Anas Urbaningrum said.

Golkar has had a slight head start in the election campaign,
holding a convention to net its presidential candidates. Many
other parties have also held internal meetings in which they were
actually campaigning their political platforms and presidential
candidates.
The official campaign period is to begin one month prior to
the election day under the General Elections Law, but each party
is to be designated an individual campaign period by the KPU, as
it is also stipulated in the same law that political parties may
not conduct their election campaigns at the same time.