On March 4, the Minister of Home Affairs and "traditional enemy" of People's Democratic Party (PRD), General Syarwan Hamid, signed a statement saying that the government had approved the PRD's registration to participate in the June 7 election after considering the recommendations of a report from the Team of Eleven.

The PRD will be running for coming election along with 48 other political parties. For us, this is still a shame when more than 60 political parties have been disqualified from participating in the election. Every political party has a right to run for the election even though they may only have a small number of followers.

In fact there are still many obstacle that will face the PRD and another political parties under the new undemocratic electoral laws. Although the number of appointed People's Consultative Assembly members is significantly less than 575 appointees in previous elections, 238 members will still be appointed by the president. Only 462 members will be elected directly by the people. Thirty eight seats will also be given to the armed forces which represents around 9-10 million votes, and is proof that the dual social and political role of the military remains.

Although the PRD will sit on Election Commission next Monday, this is still an undemocratic body. Of the 53 members, five are government representatives who have a 50 percent vote in the commission compared to the 48 representative from political parties who have the other 50 percent.

We believe this is an unfair election and although we oppose parliamentarian, we will try to use this election as a way of speaking to the people and to build the working class movement in Indonesia to build a better, more humane society.

We call on all pro-people organisations and the international solidarity movement to assist the PRD in the coming election.

Hendri Kuok
For the PRD Central Leadership Committee