Poll body told to educate voters about election

Poll body told to educate voters about election

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Calls are mounting on the General Elections Commission (KPU) to
educate voters on the Election Law so as to avoid political
parties from keeping the old proportional electoral system
intact.

Director of the Center for Electoral Reform (Cetro) Smita
Notosusanto said here on Sunday the general election system now
adopted the proportional system with an open-list of candidates,
which suggested that numerical order of legislative candidates no
longer counted as it did in the past.

"The absence of information on the new system could be misused
by political parties. With the elections less than 100 days away,
the KPU should disseminate information on how the new mechanism
works within these weeks," Smita said.

The general election is scheduled for April 5.

The Law No. 12/2003 on general elections requires voters to
mark both the symbol of a political party and the name of their
preferred legislative candidate. But the law stipulates a ballot
is valid if there is a mark on only the symbol of a party.

The one man, one vote system is applied in the upcoming
elections.

Smita said the executive boards of parties will use the
loophole to help only their loyalists win legislative seats.

She therefore asked the KPU to clearly explain to the public
the rule of the game, otherwise there would be many invalid
ballots due to the lack of information for voters.

Dissemination of information by the KPU on the poll procedures
is crucial, given the fact that the new electoral system still
benefits legislative candidates placed on top of the list.

Article 107 of the Election Law says that candidates will win
legislative seats if they win a certain number of votes. If they
fail, the law says, priority will be given to those placed on top
of the list of candidates.

M. Qodari of the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) concurred
with Smita, suggesting that the KPU quickly start providing
detailed information on how to cast ballots.

Both Smita and Qodari said that the KPU's move to install
banners in public places and place advertisements on television
was not enough because they did not tell the public how different
the 2004 elections would be compared to past polls.

Qodari said that providing the public with information on the
procedures of polling was more urgent than calling on the public
to participate in the polls.

"We estimate that public participation in the elections will
be around 90 percent. Therefore, the KPU must start providing
detailed information to the people," he said.

Baharuddin Aritonang, a politician from Golkar, said the
current system was unfair because to some extent it maintained
the old practice that determined the elected candidates based on
their numerical order.

Giving an example, Aritonang said that candidates who won
100,000 votes could be defeated by another with only 10,000 or
5,000 votes when the minimum number of votes gained (BPP) were
125,000 only because the latter were placed on the top of the
list.

Smita agreed with Aritonang, saying that the new system
disadvantaged new political parties and minority groups.

"We predict that there will be more legislators elected
because of numerical priority rather than the BPP," she said,
adding that a popular figure may not be elected because he or she
failed to meet the minimum number of votes.

She said the system could reduce public trust in the political
system.