Markus Junianto Sihaloho – The National Democrat Party and other new parties may be unable to field candidates in the 2014 election due to a just-missed age requirement.
If the election were held in April 2014, a party would have had to have been officially recognized no later than October of this year in order to be two and a half years old at the start of voting, as required by law.
NasDem was announced by the government on Nov. 11. As for other new parties, the government and the House of Representatives agreed on Monday to announce their status by Dec. 16.
Arif Wibowo, a member of the House commission on home affairs, blamed the government for "inciting conflict between parties and the House" and causing the delay.
"If the House finally decides to hold the election in April 2014, the new parties who cannot qualify will blame [the House]," Arif said in a hearing between the commission and Justice Minister Amir Syamsuddin. The last legislative election was held on April 9, 2009.
Arif said that while the government had argued it was giving more parties more time to contest, its real motive was to keep them away from the election. "Because of the government's negligence, new parties will not be included in the 2014 election," Arief said.
But the Justice Minister didn't respond to the allegation, saying in the same hearing that his office's responsibility was mainly to verify political parties. "The election is handled by KPU [the General Election Commission]," Amir said. "Everything about it is in their hands."
The delay in announcing the verification results "was meant to allow more time and opportunities for the citizens to fulfil their political rights," he said. The minister argued that the schedule had been provided by his predecessor Patrialis Akbar, who was replaced in an October cabinet reshuffle.
Nasdem's chances for the election may be in doubt, but other parties are still struggling just to get government recognition.
Among them are the Independent People's Union (SRI) Party, which seeks to nominate current World Bank managing director Sri Mulyani Indrawati as its presidential candidate; the Insulinde National Prosperity Party (PKBN), founded by Yenny Wahid, daughter of the late President Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid; and the Republican Works Party (Pakar), founded by Ari Sigit, whose father is Sigit Harjojudanto, Suharto's oldest son.
Under the tough new Law on Political Parties, applicants are required to have at least 1,000 members spread throughout the country's 33 provinces. Parties must have at least 30 registered members in each of the provinces, and they also need permanent offices and members in 75 percent of all districts and half of all subdistricts.
Malik Haramain, from the National Awakening Party (PKB), said no new parties would pass the verification process unless they had submitted the administrative requirements by this year's Sept. 22 deadline.
"It should be kept in mind that any party who handed in the administrative requirements after September 22 should not be approved," he said. "That could mean Nasdem was the only new party who got the official recognition from the government."