Camelia Pasandaran – After weeks of confusion, the General Elections Commission has finally decided on a method of allocating legislative seats based on the results of the April 9 elections, and winners could know who they are by Monday.
The commission, also known as the KPU, decided on Friday to implement the Constitutional Court ruling on seat allocations, an issue that had been muddled by a contradictory decision from the Supreme Court issued in July.
"Today [Friday], we decided to use the method that was approved by the Constitutional Court," said KPU Chairman Abdul Hafiz Anshary.
"We only have four commissioners, so we will probably not be able to complete it tonight [Friday night]. We will most likely announce the official results on Monday."
Hafiz said the decision was reached after consulting with Constitutional Court Judge Abdul Mukthie Fajar on how exactly the court's ruling should be implemented.
The KPU's decision also means that the announcement of who would take their oaths as new members of the House of Representatives in October was postponed a second time. It was originally scheduled for last Tuesday, and again expected on Friday.
"The most important thing is that we have tried to correctly implement the ruling of the Constitutional Court," he said.
Members of the KPU had been split over which candidates would be allocated seats in the third phase of vote counting. Some KPU officials backed candidates who ran in the district where their party gained the most seats; others wanted the candidate with the most votes in the province to be allocated the seat. Under the Constitutional Court ruling, the former will gain seats.
Hadar Gumay, chairman of the Center of Electoral Reform (Cetro), said that the commission's decision would not change the number of seats gained by a party, but that some candidates would be affected. "Fifteen candidates will lose their seats and be replaced by other candidates," he said.
Bambang Eka Cahya Widodo, a member of the Elections Supervisory Board (Bawaslu), agreed that the KPU had implemented the right system.
"I'm glad that they're now using the previous method as it better represents the voters' decision and is preferable in elections that use a proportional system," he said. "I observed the decision and the KPU is on the right track."
KPU member Andi Nurpati said that there would also be another announcement concerning results for areas where vote reruns or recounts had occurred.
The Democratic Party of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will still get the lion's share of seats at the House, with 148 seats.
The Golkar Party will get 106 seats, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) gets 94 seats, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) 57 seats, the National Mandate Party (PAN) 46 seats, the United Development Party (PPP) 38 seats, the National Awakening Party (PKB) 28 seats, the Great Indonesian Movement Party (Gerindra) 26 seats and the People Conscience Party (Hanura) 17 seats.