PPP cries foul in poll screening
JAKARTA (JP): The United Development Party (PPP) criticized the National Election Institute yesterday for dumping 80 of its candidates for next years general election without a clear explanation.
PPP Chairman Ismail Hasan Metareum said the institute did not give reasons for screening out 80 of the party's candidates for the House of Representatives.
There is no transparency in the screening process, Ismail said before addressing the congress of the Indonesian National Youth Committee. "We have found irregularities in the way the screening was conducted," he said.
The PPP originally submitted 850 names for screening to the election institute, which is run by the government.
Ismail declined to speculate on the possibility of there being political motives behind the institute's decision to reject some of the names.
He noted however that one of the dumped candidates had been a village chief in South Sulawesi.
A village chief, who wields strong influence over his people, is usually required to join Golkar, the ruling political group.
Ismail said he had met with Armed Forces (ABRI) Chief Gen. Feisal Tanjung and had raised the issue.
Feisal is also chief of the Coordinating Agency for National Stability (Bakorstanas), whose task is to check the political background of all general election candidates.
The agency can also issue documents which certify that the bearer has never been involved with outlawed political groups, particularly the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) which was banned in 1966.
The election institute yesterday announced the results of the screening tests: Golkar, the ruling political group, had 836 out of 850 of its candidates pass the test; PPP had 774 out of 850 names passed, and the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) had 772 out of 903 passed.
Sutoyo N.K., chairman of the National Screening Committee, said some of the candidates were screened out because they failed to submit all the required paper work. "Some of them gave fewer photographs than required, others gave copies of requested documents instead of the original," he said.
He declined to comment on reports that some candidates were rejected because of their political backgrounds.
Sutoyo said that since political groupings are allowed to field up to 850 candidates, they could either resubmit names and complete all the administrative requirements, or submit new names. They have until Nov. 30, he added.
In the election, slated for the end of May, the contestants will be fighting for 425 of the 450 seats in the national legislature, the other 75 seats are reserved for the Armed Forces. Regulations state that each political grouping is allowed to field twice the number of candidates as there are seats at stake. (imn)