Small parties may field presidential candidates

Small parties may field presidential candidates

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The debate on which political parties can field candidates in the
2004 presidential election may soon come to an end as most
factions in the House have suggested that parties winning three
percent of the seats in the House should be able to join the
race.

All factions except Golkar have reached a common understanding
that more parties should participate in the elections in 2004,
when the country is expected to organize the first ever direct
presidential election.

Golkar, which served as the political vehicle of former
president Soeharto for more than three decades, insisted that
only parties that garnered at least 20 percent of the votes in
the House, as proposed by the government, should be allowed to
contest the presidential election.

The factions also agreed that the legislative and presidential
elections be held separately, but have still to decide on the
interval between the two elections.

"We have not agreed on whether the presidential election will
be held three months, two months or one month after the
legislative election," said Barlianta Harahap, chairman of the
United Development Party (PPP) faction here on Wednesday.

The General Elections Commission (KPU) had scheduled the
legislative election for April 5, 2004, and the presidential
election between June and August.

Previously, the PDI Perjuangan and Golkar factions supported
the government's idea of adopting a 20 percent threshold.

The PDI Perjuangan and Golkar, which collected 153 and 120
seats respectively in the 1999 elections, were the only two
parties that met the 20 percent quota.

The smaller factions rejected the stipulation and tried to
block it by demanding that the elections for the president and
legislative members be held simultaneously to avoid the
threshold.

Minister of Home Affairs Hari Sabarno had repeatedly said that
the stipulation allowing only those political parties winning at
least 20 percent of the seats in the House was designed to ensure
that the elected president had sufficient support in the
legislature.

This, the minister said, would ensure a stable government in
order to lead the country out of the current economic crisis.

With the acceptance by the factions of separate elections, it
is likely that the three percent threshold will be accepted.

Effendi Choirie of the National Awakening Party (PKB) revealed
that most factions had agreed to adopt a three percent threshold
for political parties in nominating presidential candidates.

Choirie emphasized, however, that the factions could not reach
a consensus on the requirements for a figure to be nominated as a
president candidate.

The Golkar and Reform factions insisted that a presidential
candidate must have at least a university degree, but PDI
Perjuangan rejected the clause, apparently because its chairwoman
Megawati has only a senior high school certificate.

The PDI Perjuangan faction meanwhile defended a clause that a
criminal suspect, let alone a person convicted of a crime, must
not be allowed to contest the election.

Golkar, headed by veteran politician Akbar Tandjung, who had
been sentenced to three years in jail for corruption, rejected
the clause.

"Basically, all factions are negotiating with each other to
settle the arguments," Barlianta told The Jakarta Post on
Wednesday.

Faction leaders had conducted negotiations twice at the
Horison Hotel and Hilton Hotel in Jakarta. The negotiation
settled some contentious issues, but others remain unsolved.

Barlianta said the leaders of political parties would
intervene should faction leaders fail to settle the problems.

He added that the legislators hoped to bring the presidential
election bill to a plenary session on July 7 for endorsement.