PPP, PDI not impressed with poll reforms
PPP, PDI not impressed with poll reforms
JAKARTA (JP): The United Development Party (PPP) and the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) say they are not impressed by the government's gesture to strengthen monitoring of the voting and ballot counting at the next general election in 1997.
B.N. Marbun of the PDI and Jusuf Syakir of the PPP said the new presidential decree on electoral rules are not be adequate to redress flaws in the implementation of general elections.
Political observer Ridwan Saidi called the gesture as quick fixes which failed to touch the substance of the matters.
The dominant political group Golkar however hailed the move as another step to improve democracy in the country.
Golkar chairman Harmoko and legislator Oka Mahendra said the decree as proof of the government's commitment to bring democratization and improve the quality of general elections.
"Golkar has for so long wanted an improvement in the quality of the elections," Harmoko told reporters yesterday. "This decree will improve the elections' quality, just the way Golkar and the political parties want."
PPP and PDI have been campaigning for a reform of the electoral system which they say virtually ensures victory for Golkar. One of their chief complaint is over restriction that they cannot set up offices at village level and their activities are virtually confined to regency towns. Golkar however can reach the mass rural bases because the village heads usually are members of the ruling political group.
President Soeharto on April signed the decree revising a number of procedures in the general elections. The decree gives political parties greater roles as it enables them to appoint their members to witness vote casting and ballot counting.
One new rule allows a party to appoint its representatives from other districts if it could not find anyone to represent it in the said district.
This has been a common problem for PPP and PDI, particularly in remote areas. In the past, if the parties could not send their representatives, the election committee would appoint them for the parties, raising suspicions about the objectivity.
Another regulation says that the election committees would be formed at village levels instead of regency level as in the past.
Jusuf, Marbun and Ridwan, see the changes as only grazing at the surface. Interviewed separately, the three expressed their belief that what counts more is that the Golkar-dominated bureaucracy ensures fair play in every step of the way.
"The decree doesn't introduce any significant change," Jusuf said. "The only difference is that the witnesses for vote casting and ballot counting can now be appointed from a nearby sub- district, that's all".
"I'm disappointed with this decree, because the fact is that our demands are still largely ignored," he said.
"We have been making the same demands for the last 10 years, it's like we're playing a scratch record," Jusuf said, adding that PPP wanted the bureaucracy to also cut red-tape which have hampered the participation of PPP and PDI activists in monitoring of general elections.
The existing regulations, for instance, stipulate that an appointee from PPP or PDI have to obtain the approval of the regent in a certain constituency before they can become witness of vote casting and ballot counting.
B.N. Marbun said that political parties should be included in every step of the general election process.
Only with this total involvement can activists of PDI and PPP better monitor the general elections, and prevent violations, he told The Jakarta Post and Kompas.
"In practice, our witnesses in ballot counting were often ignored even when they saw violations and protested," he said.
Marbun said manipulations in previous elections occurred from the first step of voters' registration to the last step, namely the ballot counting and reporting.
"I think we even need to appoint people to monitor the computers used for counting the ballots, because we have seen how votes for PDI, for instance, were manipulated so that they decreased," he said.
Oka Mahendra believed the decree will help reduce violations and ensure that a more democratic election process occur.
"Golkar doesn't see any problem with this decree," he told the Post. "We want to see continuous improvement in general elections, so that we can be closer to our dreams of democracy."
"Golkar always wishes to win general elections fairly," he said. (swe/pwn)