---------------------------------------------------------- FREE for JOIN Indonesia Daily News Online via EMAIL: go to: http://www.indo-news.com/subscribe.html - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - Please Visit Our Sponsor http://www.indo-news.com/cgi-bin/ads1 ---------------------------------------------------------- Indonesia vote commission stands by count deadline By Chris McCall JAKARTA, July 24 (Reuters) - Indonesia's election commission will stick by its deadline of Monday to endorse the vote count from the June 7 parliamentary poll, but the result looks likely to be challenged, a senior election official said. Commission members would be required to decide on Monday whether or not to sign the results finally compiled earlier this month, Andi Mallarangeng told Reuters on Saturday. If less than the required two-thirds sign, the matter will be referred to President B.J. Habibie. ``We are going to ask the parties to sign or not to sign the results,'' Mallarangeng said by telephone. ``My guess is that less than two-thirds of the members of the KPU will sign the result.'' Under election rules if less than two-thirds of the 53 General Election Commission (KPU) members sign, the result cannot be declared officially valid. Mallarangeng said it would be up to Habibie to decide whether to invoke a special presidential decree issued just before the election to ensure such a deadlock could be broken. ``The KPU will give the report to the president and leave it to the president to decide what is going to happen,'' Mallarangeng said. If the decree was invoked the official monitor, the Election Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu), would then have seven days to decide whether or not the objections were valid. Most of the KPU members are politicians, one for each of the 48 parties that contested the election. It was Indonesia's first democratic poll since 1955 and passed off remarkably smoothly, without the feared mass bloodshed. But the count has been beset by delays. An official vote count was completed earlier this month and gave the bulk of the 462 seats at stake to five major parties. The main opposition Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDI-P) came in first place, followed by the ruling Golkar party. Many of the smaller parties will not gain any seats in the new parliament and election officials have accused them of abusing their power to deliberately obstruct the results out of sour grapes. Monday is the latest in a series of deadlines declared by the KPU, all of which have so far been broken. Although top election officials admit some complaints might be valid, they deny there was enough wrongdoing to seriously affect the result. Mallarangeng said the signing would begin at the KPU's central Jakarta headquarters at 10 a.m. (0300 GMT) and commission members prepared to sign the results would have to do so the same day. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Didistribusikan tgl. 25 Jul 1999 jam 02:56:47 GMT+1 oleh: Indonesia Daily News Online <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.Indo-News.com/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
