Don Greenlees – Indonesia's promised national elections could be postponed by up to two months because of delays in putting draft electoral laws to parliament and the likelihood of a drawn-out debate over the country's new political system.

The prospect that debate in the People's Representative Council (DPR) over the draft laws will force the election to be put back to the end of July has raised concerns in the Habibie Government over the potential for a popular backlash.

A senior presidential adviser warned: "I think it would be very dangerous to backtrack... Any delay would be seen as an attempt by the Government to prolong the transition."

But DPR members from all three official parties and a number of the as-yet-unregistered new parties have signalled they will seek fundamental changes to the Government's model, including blocking plans to create individual electorates. The debate is expected to drag on until the end of January.

The Home Affairs Ministry's director-general of public administration, Ryaas Rasyid, who is charged with steering the electoral laws through the DPR, claims the Government will need six months from the date the laws are passed to prepare for the election.

"If we work hard and the DPR could finish the discussion by the end of this year, I expect the election can be done in June. But if they postpone it until January, then the election might be in July," he told The Australian.

Government advisers fear even a short delay in the current fragile political climate could heighten the risk of unrest. It could give renewed momentum to the flagging campaign by students and other groups for the replacement of President B.J. Habibie with an interim government.

Mr Ryaas acknowledged the Government bore some of the responsibility by failing to meet its own deadline of putting the draft laws before the DPR by the end of August. The laws went to the DPR three weeks ago.

The Government has broken its package of electoral reform into three components – a law on the structure of the electoral system, a law on political parties and a law on the composition of the national and provincial parliaments. Under the Government's proposal, voters will directly elect 428 representatives from individual districts and a further 68 based on the percentage of the national vote won by each party. Another 81 will be appointed from provincial governments, and the armed forces will have 55 members.

In a sign of the Government's anxiety to keep pressure on the DPR to pass the laws quickly, Mr Ryaas warned of significant problems in holding the election next year if the DPR fulfilled threats to drop district constituencies and stick to Indonesia's current system of proportional representation. "If they change the system to become proportional, I guarantee you, it cannot be done in one year," he said.