Desy Nurhayati, Jakarta – To prevent political parties from possible losses of votes at the 2009 legislative elections, the government is planning to issue a regulation-in-lieu-of-law on procedures to mark the ballot papers.
The new rule will allow voters to pick both the candidate's name and the political party on ballot papers at the elections, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said Saturday after chairing a coordination meeting to discuss this plan at the State Palace, Jakarta.
General Elections Commission (KPU) members, Cabinet ministers, House of Representatives leaders and heads of several state agencies attended the meeting.
Under the 2008 law on legislative elections, a ballot paper is only valid if it is marked once – either on the party's logo or on the name of a legislative candidate. A ballot paper will be disqualified if it contains more than one mark.
Under this provision, political parties potentially stand to lose votes because it is likely that many voters will mark their papers twice – both on the party's logo and on the candidate's name. This, however, was allowed under the previous elections law issued in 2003.
Under the new regulation, voters will be allowed to mark the ballot twice, thus accommodating those accustomed to doing so, as they did in the 2004 legislative elections.
The President said the issuance of the regulation-in-lieu-of-law was important as Indonesian voters tended to mark the ballot twice.
KPU chairman Abdul Hafiz Anshary said voters needed more time to change their habit of voting for both the party's logo and the candidate's name.
"The President highlighted in the meeting that the mechanism of marking the ballot papers should not confuse voters. It will be detrimental if there are many votes that are invalid because they are marked twice. That is why we need to issue the regulation in lieu of the law," Hafiz said.
He said the KPU would hold a meeting with the Election Supervisory Board (Bawaslu) and government representatives next week to discuss the issue.
Indonesia will hold legislative elections on April 9, which will be contested by 38 political parties. The outcome will determine which parties are eligible to field candidates for the presidential election three months later.