Camelia Pasandaran – Election observers and the head of the Constitutional Court on Wednesday condemned a General Elections Commission, or KPU, request that the government issue a government regulation-in-lieu-of-law, or Perpu, to change the way candidates can win House seats in the coming April 9 elections.

The Constitutional Court recently annulled an article in the Election Law that allowed candidates to be elected under a system in which the number of votes is divided into the number of legislative seats in a given electoral district. That result is known as a quota. A candidate who achieved 30 percent of the quota would win the election.

Constitutional Court President Mahfud MD said the KPU's plan to restore the quota system was wrong. "The plan has sparked confusion and stimulated unhealthy political problems that may hamper the election," Mahfud told reporters.

"A Constitutional Court verdict is final, as the court is the interpreter of the Constitution. "The court is a 'negative legislator' because its decisions are as strong as the law."

The court ruled that candidates who gained the most votes, regardless of the quota, would win the seat.

On Tuesday night, the KPU met Minister of Home Affairs Mardiyanto and lawmakers to discuss the possibility of a Perpu being issued to bring back the article that was annulled by the court. Mardiyanto said the government had agreed to issue the Perpu before March 6.

The KPU said the verdict was not sufficiently clear for it to implement. "The court decision on the majority vote is not clear," KPU member I Gusti Putu Artha said on Tuesday. "Do we have to use a district system or do we have to count the seats for each party first?"

Mahfud responded on Wednesday that the Constitutional Court's verdict was clear enough and that it was wrong for the KPU to interpret it differently.

"We clearly said that after the commission counts the total votes, it has to count the seats gained by each party," he said. "Afterward, the commission decides on the elected legislative candidate from each party."

Mahfud said the KPU should not overstep its specific areas of expertise. "KPU members don't understand the law and they should not try to interpret the court verdict based on their limited knowledge of the law," Mahfud said.

"If KPU members are careless in this case, they have to remember that there could be political and legal consequences. The political consequences may come from the lawmakers or the president himself."

Jeirry Sumampow, the national coordinator of Indonesian Voters Committee, or TEPI, said the KPU had been forced to ask the government to issue a Perpu to cover its mistakes. "This coming election will be prone to conflict if there are unclear regulations."