PPI to begin ballot count immediately
JAKARTA (JP): After 10 days of uncertainty, the General Elections Commission (KPU) ordered the National Elections Committee (PPI) on Thursday to immediately begin the national ballot count for the June 7 general election.
The decision was made in a rare vote during a KPU plenary meeting, after the commission failed to come to an agreement through deliberation. All but three of the commission members voted in favor of an immediate ballot count, with two votes against the proposal and one abstention.
According to the KPU's internal rules, representatives of each of the 48 parties contesting the elections have one vote, while the combined vote of the five government appointees on the commission are weighted to equal 48 votes.
The plenary session, presided over by KPU deputy chairman Adnan Buyung Nasution on behalf of chairman Rudini, produced an agreement that while the national vote count proceeded, the KPU should simultaneously verify the accuracy of the ballot count conducted by the PPI. The commission will use the C1 forms used at some 320,000 polling stations nationwide to check the accuracy of the ballot count.
The KPU members also agreed the commission should at the same time settle all allegations of elections fraud and irregularities in cooperation with the official Elections Supervisory Committee.
PPI deputy chairman A.A. Oka Mahendra said separately the PPI would decide in a plenary meeting on Friday when the national ballot count would start.
"We held a meeting this afternoon (Thursday), but did not make any decision on the initial day for the vote count because many PPI members were absent," Mahendra told The Jakarta Post.
The KPU plenary session was marked by protest when representatives of 11 political parties walked out of the meeting, saying the session was called to justify an unlawful decision.
"We cannot accept the session because it annulled article 62 of the 1999 electoral law, which stipulates that the national vote count can only begin when all complaints of elections violations are settled," Indonesian Christian National Party (Krisna) representative Clara M. Sitompoel announced.
Indonesian Democratic Union Party (PUDI) Sri Bintang Pamungkas was also among those representatives who walked out of the session.
The other protesters were the representatives of the Indonesian Democrats Alliance Party (PADI), the National Democrats Party (PND), the Indonesian Muslim Awakening Party (KAMI), the Democratic Catholic Party (PKD), the Democratic People's Party (PRD), the Indonesian Workers Party (PPI), the Indonesian People's Party (PARI), the New Indonesia Party (PIB) and the Democratic Islam Party (PID).
With the KPU failing to discuss disputed vote-sharing agreements among political parties, several provincial elections committees, including the committee in North Sumatra, delayed their meetings on the deals until Friday.
House seats
Political observer Indria Samego lashed out at demands by some KPU members that political parties which failed to win at least one seat in the House of Representatives (DPR) in the general election be automatically granted a seat in the legislative body.
"They (KPU members) make their own interpretations of the 1999 law on elections," he said after addressing a seminar at the state-run Institute for Home Affairs Administration in Sumedang, West Java, on Thursday.
He said minor political parties were involved in a conspiracy in their efforts to maintain their existence.
"They collude with each other for seats in the DPR, MPR or other high-level state institutions," he said, adding that their maneuvers were immoral.
The MPR is the acronym for the People's Consultative Assembly.
A political researcher at the National Institute of Science, Indria, said the government should issue a decree terminating the membership in the KPU of political parties which failed to gain a seat in the House.
"It's not easy to kick minor political parties out of the KPU because the 1999 electoral law states that their membership is valid until 2004," he said.
Several KPU members proposed in Wednesday's plenary session that minor political parties be allocated a seat in the House after the commission failed to reach a consensus on the vote- sharing agreement.
"This year's general election was a multiparty election, but the political laws fail to represent the wishes of the people because the next DPR will only include a few parties," United Party (PP) representative Mardinsyah said during the session.
The Jakarta office of the Independent Elections Monitoring Committee also opposed giving minor political parties seats in the House, asking KPU members to focus on completing the national vote count rather than promoting their personal interests.
The independent monitoring committee also said parties which failed to secure a seat in the House should gracefully concede defeat and stop their political maneuvering through their representatives in the KPU.(imn/43/40)