Party leader Suspects Scenario To Kill Small Parties

Jakarta, Jan 8 (ANTARA) - General chairman of the Indonesian Justice and Unity Party (PKPI) Sutiyoso said there was a scenario to block small parties from taking part in 2014 general elections. "The scenario was to kill small parties having no representatives at the Parliament," the former Jakarta governor said Tuesday without particularly directed his allegation to a certain body or parties. He made the statement before the Election Commission announced its decision disqualifying 24 political parties including PKPI from taking part in the elections. He said he had information that no small parties not yet represented at the Parliament would go through the verification process by KPU. The 24 parties failed to meet the requirements to take part in the elections, KPU chairman Husni Kamil Manik said later after an open plenary session. KPU selected only 10 of 36 political parties allowed to take part in the general elections in 2014. "We have gone with all out efforts spending no small fund for a small party," Sutiyoso, a retired three star army general, said on Tuesday. He said he appreciated the transparency shown by KPU in holding an open plenary meeting but regretted that it had disqualified parties on just "trivial matters." He said his party could not meet the requirement on the ratio of women in the party officials and minimum number of members in all constituencies. The KPU plenary meeting was full of interruptions by parties protesting the result of the verification by KPU . The meeting took almost 12 hours starting Monday afternoon to end past midnight or early on Tuesday.