Questioning votes

Questioning votes of civil servants

From Rakyat Merdeka

With the 2004 general election approaching and candidates for the posts of president and vice president being proposed by political parties and even non-governmental organizations, political observers are still questioning the distribution of votes to be cast by civil servants.

As members of the Civil Servants Corps (Korpri), civil servants and their families account for 35 million votes, which are at present neutral but can be expected later to be divided among five major parties. These five are the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), the National Mandate Party (PAN), the United Development Party (PPP), the National Awakening Party (PKB) and the Golkar Party. The rising Crescent Moon Party (PBB) might also expect to get some of the votes.

Because this is the postreform era, none of the five parties have secured a majority of the votes. So the support of Korpri members will go to the top first to seven parties from the 1999 elections, in varying degrees. All the other parties expected to take part in the upcoming elections will further fragment the support of the civil servants.

However, projections on the distribution of civil servants' votes depend on which parties can offer convincing guarantees of improved public welfare. Provisional estimates may be that in the 2004 elections, almost half of the Korpri members will vote for PDI Perjuangan, with 20 percent voting for Golkar, 20 percent for PAN, 15 percent for PPP and 5 percent for PKB or PBB.

UMIYATI Jakarta