Desy Nurhayati, Jakarta – Observers are warning the 2009 legislative elections could fail because of the poor performance by the General Elections Commission (KPU) in preparing the national event.
At a discussion here Wednesday, members of the Coalition of the Election Monitoring Society, a group of NGOs, criticized the commission for not meeting schedules and for enforcing election regulations inconsistently.
"The KPU did not focus on things that it should have prioritized. This is a sign of the polls body's bad performance," said Jojo Rohi of the Election Monitoring Independent Committee.
He cited as an example the KPU's recent overseas trip to distribute information on the upcoming elections to other countries' election committees, despite the remaining backlog of work here.
The KPU insisted the trip was important to maximize the participation of the 3.12 million Indonesians living abroad.
Several KPU officials traveled to Beijing earlier this week and are planning to visit another 13 capitals worldwide for similar purposes.
Ray Rangkuti of Lingkar Madani Institute criticized the KPU for delaying the publication of the final list of eligible voters and the final list of legislative candidates.
The KPU was originally scheduled to announce the voter data on Oct. 10, but then extended the deadline to Oct. 24. The commission argued that the delay was due to some local election bodies failing to submit updated lists of voters in time. "I doubt the KPU will announce it (the information) on Oct. 24," Ray said.
An estimated 170 million people will cast their votes when Indonesia holds its second direct legislative elections on Apr. 9 next year.
Ray also criticized the KPU for extending the period given to the public to scrutinize the preliminary list of legislative candidates from 10 days to 14 days. "There should have been a legal basis for this extra time. They cannot just extend it," he said.
A total of 11,868 candidates from 38 political parties made it onto the KPU's preliminary list (DCS). They will vie for 560 seats at the House of Representatives.
The list was published in the media on Oct. 7. The public was given until Oct. 14 to file complaints against candidates on the list, and parties had to respond to the complaints by this Wednesday. The KPU is scheduled to announce the final list of legislative candidates on Oct. 31.
Wahidah Suaib of the Elections Supervisory Board (Bawaslu) said some political parties had intervened in KPU decision-making. She said the delay in announcing the DCS was evidence of this.
"The KPU did take into consideration the parties' wishes, but it ruined its own credibility. It should have taught the parties to be disciplined in complying with the initial election schedule," she said.
Sebastian Salang of the Indonesian Parliamentary Watch Forum warned that the KPU must remain independent from any vested political interests in the lead-up to the upcoming elections.