Presidential election draft criticized
JAKARTA (JP): Chairman of the People's Consultative Assembly working committee for constitutional amendment Jacob Tobing expressed disappointment on Sunday with a draft of their proposals for presidential elections from its team of experts.
Jacob said that the team's draft was not carefully thought out and, therefore, it contributed almost nothing to the committee's endeavor to amend the 1945 Constitution.
"Many of their suggestions are inconsistent and do not support each other," Jacob, of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, told The Jakarta Post.
Article 6a on direct presidential elections is the starkest example of their inconsistency, according to Jacob.
The experts, comprising law and political science scholars, suggested that only two pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates representing the top two political parties or coalition of parties can run for the top posts.
"The proposal will allow for a repeat of the 1999 presidential election when a group of parties that failed to win the most votes in the general election can win the presidency," he said, referring to the victory of Abdurrahman Wahid, who was supported by a coalition of Muslim-based parties, over Megawati Soekarnoputri, whose party finished first in the general election.
Jacob underlined that such a coalition should have been formed before the general election.
He further criticized another article which stipulates that, to win the presidency, a candidate needs a simple majority of the vote, and collects at least 20 percent of the vote in at least two-thirds of the constituencies.
"It is a combination of two different concepts of an election that cannot get along well," he remarked.
The experts also suggested that if no candidate meets the required vote, a re-run of the election featuring two pairs of candidates with the most votes will be conducted.
"They did not anticipate that the election re-run would result in a repeat of the previous election, because the contestants were practically the same," Jacob said.
Altogether, the team of experts proposed amendments to 13 articles of the 1945 Constitution concerning legal and political affairs.
The draft proposed that a general election be conducted to elect members of the House of Representatives (DPR), the Regional Representative Council (DPD) and the provincial council, president, vice president and heads of regional administrations.
"We are still discussing their proposal and will hold another hearing with them on Wednesday because we need to hear more of their arguments," Jacob said.
"In general what they are suggesting is good but we expect improvement in the substances of their recommendation."
On the direct presidential idea, Jacob said: "Even factions represented in the Assembly working committee remain split. So it is hard to comment on it now." (dja)