Politicians demand more seats on Council

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Claiming to be doing tougher jobs and representing more people, Jakarta politicians have demanded additional seats on the City Council from the current 85, to 100 seats, for next year's general election.

"Due to the complexity of the capital, we need more seats on the City Council. Eighty-five is not enough to serve the people of Jakarta," councillor Agung Imam Sumanto of the largest party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), said after speaking at a seminar.

Agung, who is also City Council chairman, claimed that the country's capital, Jakarta, had more complex problems compared with other areas.

He also urged that the calculation of seats on the City Council should not only be based on the city's population, about 8.6 million people.

"The fact is, the population reaches more than 14 million people by day," he added.

According to Article 49 of Law 12/2003 on General Elections, a province with a population of 7 million to 10 million deserves 75 representatives on the provincial representatives council (DPRD).

Based on the city's permanent population, the City Council should comprise only 75 seats.

The seminar, organized by the Jakarta General Elections Commission (KPUD) was used by many politicians to protest the KPU calculation of City Council seats.

The council consists of 11 factions, including PDI Perjuangan with 30 seats, plus the United Development Party and the National Mandate Party, with 13 seats each.

The Indonesian Military (TNI)/Police faction and Golkar Party have nine and eight seats respectively on the council. The remaining 22 are occupied by six small parties.

Agung's party colleague, Maringan, supported his statement, saying the population agency's data was misleading, as many people did not have an ID card.

"There are still many people who have identity cards in the city who have not been registered by the Central Statistics Agency (BPS). They could total hundreds of thousands of people," Maringan added.

Several politicians from tiny parties, who attended the seminar, also supported the suggestion to expand the number of seats on the council.

Many observers have often criticized councillors for only thinking about personal and party interests, instead of the people's.

Councillors rarely respond to the interests of the poor, such as evicted people, who often visit the council, saying they have no Jakarta ID.