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.