Poll authority sticks to PDI-P ban

Rusman, The Jakarta Post, Samarinda, East Kalimantan

The East Kalimantan General Election Commission (KPUD) has insisted on its decision to bar the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle's (PDI-P) East Kalimantan chapter from the legislative election.

"We've upheld our earlier commitment to disqualify political parties that did not meet the requirements by submitting a valid list of legislative candidates by a certain date," said Noersyamsu Agang, the chairman of the KPUD, after a plenary meeting at the KPUD on Friday.

The situation in East Kalimantan province, a region where PDI- P has some strong support, remained calm on Friday, one day after the KPUD announced the controversial decision to prohibit the party.

In the 1999 election, PDI-P won 13 of 45 seats in the East Kalimantan provincial council.

The current debacle clouding the PDI-P began when Imam Munjiat, the chairman of PDI-P's East Kalimantan chapter, differed with Soekardi Jarwo Putro, the secretary-general of the chapter, on the names of legislative candidates from their party.

Soekardi, who is currently the speaker of the East Kalimantan provincial council, rejected the list of legislative candidates arranged by Imam in December.

The two were then locked in a bitter dispute over which PDI-P members deserved to be put on the list. They eventually failed to hand over the final list of legislative candidates on Jan. 19, the date of the deadline for the political parties to hand it over.

The KPUD had granted an opportunity for the two to resolve the differences by Tuesday Jan. 27, but they were still unable to break the impasse. The KPUD again gave them a bit more leeway of two more days.

However, despite that, the chapter executives still failed to come up with a valid list, prompting the KPUD to disqualify the whole party. The chapter had previously planned to nominate 46 legislative candidates.

Following the controversial decision on Thursday, the KPUD executives are planning to meet with the central KPU executives in Jakarta immediately to discuss the matter.

It is still unclear whether the decision by the KPUD is final and binding. It also is unclear whether the central KPU has a veto right on the decision made by the local KPUs.

The Jakarta Post was unable on Friday to reach Ramlan Surbakti, the deputy chairman of the central KPU and Anas Urbaningrum, a member of the central KPU to confirm whether they had such a right.

Meanwhile, Imam said that a team from the PDI-P central board was attempting to hold a meeting with the central KPU to discuss the case.

"We have not taken a stance yet. We are waiting for the outcomes of the meeting between the central KPU and the team," he said.