PPP expects decent showing in 1997 election

PPP expects decent showing in 1997 election

JAKARTA (JP): The United Development Party is still hopeful
that it can make a decent showing in the next general election in
1997.

The United Development Party (PPP) chairman, Ismail Hasan
Metareum, said the party would play the role of a "scavenger",
picking up small amounts of votes here and there, sufficient to
win seats in the House of Representatives under the proportional
representation election system, Antara reported yesterday.

However, Ismail Hasan said that the party will stand little
chance of winning any seats if the election is held under the
first-past-the-post system, in which each district seat is
contested and awarded to the winner, even by a margin of one
vote.

He was referring to research, commissioned by President
Soeharto to the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, to study which
of the two electoral systems is better suited to Indonesia.

Addressing party supporters in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan,
Ismail Hasan said on Tuesday night that the district system would
not suit the current condition in Indonesia, where "the masses
have been depoliticized and political parties emaciated."

If the system is adopted in the present condition, the party
will not be represented in the House of Representatives, he said.

The party, historically a merger of four Moslem parties, has
come a distant second to Golkar in all the last five general
elections held under President Soeharto since 1971.

In 1992, it polled 17 percent of the total votes, against
Golkar's 68 percent, and was just ahead of the Indonesian
Democratic Party, which polled 15 percent.

With the next election only two years away, Golkar is already
ahead in terms of preparations, consolidating the organization
nationwide. Chairman Harmoko has already promised to improve on
Golkar's 1992 performance.

Under the current system, the seats in the House of
Representatives are divided in accordance to the votes polled by
the parties.

Officials and analysts have ruled out the possibility of
changing the electoral system for 1997.

But, in an attempt to improve the ways the elections and
ballot counting is monitored, the government issued last month a
decree allowing the political parties to appoint their witnesses
from other districts if they could not find one locally.

Ismail Hasan dismissed this concession as "making little
difference" to the way the election is administered. "It won't
stop the cheating, deceptions, injustices and discriminations,"
he said.

To ensure a truly open, just and fair election, the political
parties should be involved in organizing the elections, he said.

"I can see that there's a genuine concern in the new
government regulation, but it is not a major change," he said.
"The United Development Party has long demanded that the
political parties be involved in the election committees, right
down to the lowest levels." (emb)