Four Indonesian parliamentarians are hanging on to their positions despite their East Timorese electorate having broken away from the republic nearly three years ago.

Amid calls to give up their seats, the MPs insist they are representing the interests of the Timorese remaining in Indonesia.

Political commentators have condemned the politicians for staying on in parliament, at a cost to the cash-strapped government.

Indonesia's parliamentary rules do not provide guidance for MPs who lose their constituency, said Wahyu Sugeng Santoso, a legal officer at the General Election Commission. He said the MPs could hold on to their seats until the next general election in 2004.

Rekso Ageng Herman, a member of President Megawati Sukarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP), defended his decision to stay: "I don't represent a place, in this case the province of East Timor, but the people of East Timor."

Under Indonesia's electoral laws, MPs are not directly elected but are selected by their political parties to represent a province.

Another MP for East Timor, Ronny Hutagal, also from PDIP, said he was still looking after the interests of tens of thousands of East Timorese refugees who remained in camps in Indonesian West Timor.

The other two MPs are from former president Soeharto's Golkar party.