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)