---------------------------------------------------------- Visit Indonesia Daily News Online HomePage: http://www.indo-news.com/ Please Visit Our Sponsor http://www.indo-news.com/cgi-bin/ads1 ---------------------------------------------------------- The Straits Times, August 3 1999 Small Parties Given Final Ultimatum If they do not agree to validate count, Habibie to issue decree legalising final results of June 7 vote today By SUSAN SIM INDONESIA CORRESPONDENT JAKARTA -- Indonesia's minor political parties, struggling to head off oblivion, yesterday bought themselves another day by postponing, yet again, the validation of the June 7 election results. The grandstanding is, however, to end today under a final ultimatum which will see President B.J. Habibie assume direct responsibility for this final stage of the country's first free, and relatively clean, vote in 44 years if at least two-thirds of the 48 parties continue to refuse to sign it. "I told KPU chairman Rudini today that if the small parties do not make a decision by the end of the day, Mr Habibie will issue a decree legalising the final results tomorrow," government liaison chief Ryaas Rasyid, who drafted the election laws, told The Straits Times, referring to the National Election Commission. "If that happens, the KPU will become nothing. The President could have issued the decree yesterday, but he did not because he's trying to show the public that there is no conflict between the KPU and the government." Dr Habibie had turned the ratification process over to the Supreme Court-led Election Oversight Committee (Panwaslu) last week following last-minute allegations of poll irregularities by 27 of the smaller parties, even though 17 parties -- which together accounted for 93 per cent of the popular vote -- declared they were satisfied with the outcome. It was then understood that if the Panwaslu rejected the complaints, the President would endorse the results himself, so the formal distribution of legislative seats to the winning parties could begin. But on Sunday, when the Panwaslu announced its finding that the complaints were "unspecific, not empirically proven and not affecting the vote count", Dr Habibie decided to give the KPU one last chance, sources said. Instead, Mr Rudini, whose MKGR party was one of the dissenters, announced yesterday morning that the political parties wanted to meet without the presence of the five government appointees, delaying the final decision by another day. The government appointees agreed but made no secret of their annoyance. Lawyer Adnan Buyung Nasution, who was earlier this year voted by a majority of the 53 KPU members to be chairman but who gave his seat up to Mr Rudini under a prior agreement, told reporters: "This is Indonesian democracy...there's so much tolerance. But there should be a limit." His outspoken comments and those of fellow government appointee Andi Mallarangeng became the subject of more protests during the closed-door talks among the party representatives in the afternoon, sources said. National Mandate Party (PAN) representative Hasballah Saad said that after several hours, the parties could still not agree upon a mechanism that would allow them to ratify the results, although most were leaning towards adding a codicil to the official documents to register their allegations of electoral improprieties. Other sources said that as a pre-condition for signing, some parties also wanted Mr Nasution and Mr Mallarangeng expelled for embarrassing them with their cutting remarks. A defiant Mr Mallarangeng said last night: "They call us provocateurs for telling the truth. But they have no right to ask us to leave. Of course, they have the right to ask the government to withdraw us since we are its representatives." But he did not think the government would agree to the "blackmail", and was optimistic that if the requisite 32 party signatories could not be summoned, he and the other nominees would be able to force through a vote on ratification. Under the KPU's complicated regulations, the five government appointees have nine votes each to balance the larger number of party representatives. The election results can also be validated by collecting 62 votes in a plenary session. "We must ratify the election results tomorrow," said Mr Mallarangeng. "No two ways about it." ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Didistribusikan tgl. 5 Aug 1999 jam 05:55:01 GMT+1 oleh: Indonesia Daily News Online <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.Indo-News.com/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
