Wisdom sought from House's decision on electoral system

Wisdom sought from House's decision on electoral system

JAKARTA (JP): They were united last November in rejecting the
government-sponsored district representation voting system for
the upcoming general election on June 7, favoring instead a
proportional representation electoral system.

However, when it came to deciding the electoral districts for
the voting -- whether at the regency level, the mayoralty level
or the provincial level -- legislators split and stalled
deliberations on the electoral bill in the House of
Representatives.

Legislators from the four factions in the House -- the United
Development Party (PPP), Golkar, the Indonesian Democratic Party
(PDI) and the Armed Forces (ABRI) -- deliberating the electoral
bill together with the government have reached an impasse over
the issue.

Golkar -- backed by ABRI and the government -- has insisted it
wants proportional representation at the regency level. PPP and
PDI are arguing for the provincial level.

In the open session of its Special Committee on Monday, the
House is expected to rule on the matter.

PPP legislator Zarkasih Nur said on Sunday that PPP would not
shift its stance, and "will use any allowed legal means (in the
House)" to push through its will.

Whether PPP will push through its will through voting or a
walkout will be seen on Jan. 28, the day the political bills on
elections, political parties and the status of the legislative
bodies, are slated to be endorsed.

Golkar has employed a "reform" argument in the matter, saying
that voting at the provincial level would be tantamount to
maintaining the "status quo". Until the 1997's poll, which
resulted in a landslide victory for Golkar, the elections had
always been conducted at the provincial level.

Golkar also said it wanted constituents to avoid "buying a pig
in a poke", because if polls were conducted at the provincial
level constituents in the regency may not know who their eventual
representatives would be.

Golkar said this was a matter of "accountability" and a show
of "people's sovereignty".

Golkar legislator Yasril A. Baharuddin said on Friday that his
faction actually believed district representation was ideal.

"But we are trying to be realistic and logical, and not jump
directly to a system of district representation," he told The
Jakarta Post.

PPP legislator Zarkasih Nur said on Sunday that
"accountability" and "people's sovereignty", were not the issues.

Zarkasih said that factions had already agreed to stipulate in
the electoral bill that legislative candidates would be
determined by party chapters at the regency level -- not by the
party's central board as in the present system.

According to Zarkasih, the issue here is "fairness" and how to
create a level playing field for all parties contesting the
election.

If proportional representation was conducted at the regency
level, Golkar, with vast branches of support across the
archipelago, would benefit the most, many analysts have said.
This was the reason why a district representation voting system
in which the electoral districts were regencies was rejected in
the first place.

Apart from Golkar's financial resources and decades of power
over the bureaucracy, analysts and representatives of new parties
have also pointed to the increasing potential that the group
could employ money politics given the prolonged economic crisis.

An executive of one new political party said officials should
be banned from managing the Rp 17 trillion social safety net
program at least 60 days before the election as a way to prevent
vote buying.

"They could even win up to 80 percent of the total House
seats," an observer predicted, referring to Golkar's resources.

"Why not? Although formally the bureaucracy has said it would
be neutral, psychologically it's hard to do for those who have
enjoyed the winner's spoils," the observer, who declined to be
named, said.

If proportional representation was conducted at the regency
level, Golkar said it would propose the figure of 420 electoral
districts -- 210 allocated for Java and Bali, and 210 for the
outer islands. Of the current House's 425 elected seats, 225 are
from Java and Bali.

The PPP and the PDI have slammed Golkar's approach as
tantamount to exercising a district representation system.

Golkar has answered its critics by asserting that its approach
is completely different from district representation, as the
latter adheres to the "winner take all" principle. In the
"combined systems of proportional and district representation"
the residual votes in the regency would be pooled nationally for
proportional redistribution.

Assuming a 500-seat House, Golkar said the contesting
political parties could have the remaining seats -- 80 including
the number allocated for ABRI -- proportionally.

On Friday, the director general for regional autonomy at the
Ministry of Home Affair, Ryaas Rasyid, who heads the government's
team of seven experts who drafted the political bills, said the
government would leave it to the House to decide whether
proportional representation would be done at the provincial or
regency level. (aan)