General Election Draft Bill: Four Articles Still Stagnant
Thursday, 14 February, 2008 | 14:20 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: Up until yesterday (13/2) the inter-factions lobby on the draft General Election Bill had not yet found any meeting point with several factions still maintaining their own arguments.

"No progress, it's still stagnant," said Ali Masykur Musa, a member of the draft General Election Bill Special Committee from the National Awakening Faction (PKB), yesterday.

The four articles that have not yet been agreed upon during the lobbying, said Ali, were related to: election regional allocations; technicalities regarding determining the fixed candidates; the setting of either the electoral threshold or the parliamentary threshold; and calculating the remaining votes.

As regards the number of House of Representatives (DPR) members and technicalities of voting, said Ali, these can be negotiated.

During the lobbying, according to Ali, there are two groups that are in opposition.

The first one comprises Golkar, PKB, the Justice & Prosperous Party (PKS) and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).

The second group consists of the United Development Party (PPP), the Democrat Party and the National Mandate Party (PAN).

The next lobbying session, said Ali, will be steered to identify the principles that are to be agreed upon in the articles formulation.

"When it's time for voting, the articles formulation can be agreed instantly," he said.

DPR Speaker Agung Laksono has asked the draft General Election Bill Special Committee's lobbying team to complete its tasks soon.

According to him, if in fact the lobbying cannot go well up until the deadline, then voting will be the final option.

"But if possible, let’s try the negotiation route first," he said.

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