A'an Suryana, Jakarta – A member of the General Elections Committee (KPU) urged the House of Representatives on Thursday to immediately revise the 1999 Election Law, or else the committee would run out of time to prepare the 2004 polls.
Chusnul Mar'iyah, one of 11 KPU members, expressed concern over the House's lack of will in deliberating the amendment bill, which would affect the process before and after the 2004 elections.
"It seems that the House is not making the deliberation of the bill a priority," Chusnul told reporters after addressing a seminar on good governance held by Paramadina University here. "Instead of taking necessary steps that could smooth the legislative process, the House has involved itself in political power plays."
The legislators spent much of their energy last year to fight President Abdurrahman Wahid, who eventually fell over his alleged role in a financial scandal involving the State Logistics Agency (Bulog). This year, the House legislators are busy rescuing their speaker Akbar Tandjung, a suspect in another scam linked to Bulog. One year has past since the government submitted the bill to the House.
Changes to the 1999 Election Law cannot be made from the legal point of view, pending the completion of an amendment to the 1945 Constitution by August of this year at the latest.
KPU has set a 2003 deadline for the House to endorse the revision bill. Chusnul said a failure to meet the deadline would force the KPU, the facilitator of the elections, to use the current law, which many criticized for containing many loopholes and inconsistencies.
Citing an example, Chusnul said that if the revision failed to materialize, the reduction of parties, an idea which drew strong support from all contesting parties, would not take effect
The 1999 Election Law states that any party could register itself with the KPU for the next election unless it failed to reach a mandatory 2 percent voter threshold in the previous election. Under the much-awaited new law, those which failed to meet the 2 percent threshold in the 1999 polls would be banned from the 2004 elections. They would be allowed to register for the 2009 elections, however. Chusnul said the 2 percent rule served as a method to select the eligible parties as well as to simplify administrative matters at the KPU.
She believes the amendment would affect the quality of the 2004 elections. "Therefore, like it or not, the deliberation process must soon be completed, otherwise we may repeat the disastrous experience of the 1999 elections," she said.
The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle was the top vote-getter in 1999, but failed to win the presidency which went to the National Awakening Party, which secured the fourth most votes overall. Many called it a tragedy of democracy.
The new law is expected to determine which election system, proportional or regional, will be used in 2004.