PPP uncovers flaws in election stages

PPP uncovers flaws in election stages

JAKARTA (JP): The Moslem-based United Development Party (PPP)
expressed resentment yesterday over shortcomings it discovered
during some of the preparation stages for the 1997 general
elections.

Ali Hardi Kiaidemak of the party's central board told PPP
campaigners yesterday that a monitoring team of the party found
flaws in the way the government screened its candidates.

He said two PPP candidates in Temanggung, Central Java flunked
the screening, but neither the General Election Institute nor the
National Screening Committee volunteered information about the
grounds for the decision. The screening procedure is meant to
weed out candidates with problems, such as past communist links.

"All we know is that the two candidates were former
subdistrict heads," Ali Hardi said.

All Indonesian subdistrict heads are government employees
whose political aspirations should be channeled through the
dominant Golkar political organization.

Another "oddity" that PPP observed was committed by Golkar, he
said. Hundreds of senior and junior high school students in
Central Java had been recruited as so-called "task-force
members", whose duties include safeguarding Golkar events.

Most of the students were not yet 17, the official age when
they can vote, Ali said. "They shouldn't get involved in any
political affairs," he said.

On Wednesday, PPP chairman Ismail Hasan Metareum also accused
Golkar of committing "fraud" when it was consolidating members in
several Java cities.

"Some local government officials who are also Golkar members
have used government facilities for their activities," Ismail
said.

When asked for comments, chairman of the National Screening
Committee Sutoyo N.K. suggested that PPP bring the matters to the
official Election Monitoring Committee.

"It's beyond the responsibility of the National Screening
Committee," he said.

Speaking about the results of the election screening, Sutoyo
said the committee has almost completed the screening of the
candidates for the legislatures at the national and regional
levels.

"About 85 percent of the candidates have passed the
screening," he said.

He said the screening committee is giving the remaining
candidates until Dec. 20 to complete the documents required for
registration. The final list of candidates will be made public on
that day.

The three political organizations -- Golkar, the United
Development Party and the Indonesian Democratic Party -- will vie
for 425 of the available 500 seats in the House next year. The
remaining 75 seats are reserved for the Armed Forces, whose
members do not vote in elections.

Each political organization is permitted to submit a maximum
of 850 candidates names for next year's election. The figure is
twice the number of allocated seats for the three organizations.
(imn)