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Rudini elected chairman of election body

Source
Agence France Presse - March 11, 1999

Jakarta – A former general and minister in the Suharto administration was elected chairman of Indonesia's newly-established election commission Thursday and sworn in hours later by President B.J. Habibie.

"The formation of the commission will lead us to a new chapter in our election [history], that serves as a gate to the new democratic Indonesia we all hope for," Habibie said at the ceremony at the Merdeka palace.

The 53-strong commission is made up of five government appointees and representatives of the 48 parties contesting the June 7 elections, the first since the fall of Suharto in May last year.

Rudini former army chief of staff and minister of home affairs, was elected early Thursday with 39 votes out of 45, Media Indonesia said.

He is also a member of a military think-tank, the Center for Strategic Studies, and a representative of the People's Mutual Cooperation Party, made up of breakaway members of the ruling Golkar party.

The body elected noted lawyer Adnan Buyung Nasution, a government appointee to the commission, and Harun Alrasyid, a constitutional law expert of the Moslem Community Party, as vice-chairmen.

One member, from the People's Democratic Party whose leader is jailed, was absent during the vote, two abstained and the five government members are not entitled to vote.

At the swearing-in Habibie said the commission was charged with playing a "strategic role" to ensure the success of the elections and called on the people to endorse it.

Commission member and staunch government critic Sri Bintang Pamungkas, leader of the Indonesian Union Democratic Party which was outlawed during the Suharto era, failed to show up at the ceremony.

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