Some 141.89 million people registered as voters

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A total of 141.89 million people of the 212.9 million population have already registered as eligible voters in the 2004 general election, up by 20 percent from about the 118.15 million in the 1999 elections, the General Election Commission (KPU) announced on Thursday.

KPU also said the registration for political parties to contend in the elections would be conducted from July 9 to Oct. 9, while that for Regional Representative (DPD) candidates would be open from July 8 to Sept. 8.

KPU Deputy Chairman Ramlan Surbakti however said the number of voters would certainly increase as the registration in the conflict-ridden provinces of Maluku, Papua and Aceh was still under way.

He expressed dismay that many people in a number of villages in North Sumatra and East Kalimantan had refused to register because they did not want to be counted as residents of newly formed regencies.

The voter registration covered about 99.04 percent of almost 502,000 census areas set by the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS), he said.

Despite the incomplete work, Ramlan added, KPU would hold a meeting on July 9 to determine electoral districts in all provinces except for Aceh, Maluku and Papua.

According to the law, the number of seats in the House of Representatives on offer in the next elections will be 550 while the number of regional representatives will be 150. The House and the regional representative council will constitute the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR).

So far, BPS has registered only 2.6 million of around four million Acehnese and 1.6 million people have already registered as eligible voters, meaning that 1.4 million people in the war- torn province have yet to be included in the census data.

KPU has targeted around 130 million eligible voters, including nationals living overseas.

Ramlan also said that incomplete voter registration would likely cause a delay in KPU's next tasks of organizing the general election scheduled for April 5, 2004.

"This is a very busy month for KPU since we must handle the voter registration, the formation of electoral districts, the registration of election contenders and legislator candidates and others," he said.

Separately, Ramlan said that the political parties that had passed the verification by the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, were allowed as of July 9 to register themselves with KPU to enter the elections.

"The registration of parties eligible will be conducted by KPU while the administrative and legal verification of the parties will be done by KPU's offices in provinces and regencies," he said.

KPU's branch offices will check whether political parties have met the administrative requirements and conduct a verification in the field.

However, KPU member Mulyana W. Kusumah said KPU would not have to verify the six largest political parties that had met the 2 percent electoral threshold required by the general election law.

The six parties are the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), The Golkar Party, the United Development Party (PPP), the National Awakening Party (PKB), the National Mandate Party (PAN) and the Crescent Star Party (PBB).

Ramlan said that the registration of regional representative candidates would be conducted by KPU's regional offices.

THE JAKARTA POST -- FRIDAY, JULY 4, 2003 -- PAGE 4