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69303
Mon, 07/06/2009 - 17:55
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News Focus: APPEAL TO POSTPONE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS ON RISE By Eliswan Azly


Jakarta, July 6 (ANTARA) - The controversy over the fixed voter's list (DPT) has again come up under the public spotlight, as marked with rising calls for the postponement of the presidential election scheduled to take place on July 8, 2009.

A public policy observer, Ismet Hasan Putro, called on the government Sunday to postpone the implementation of the presidential elections scheduled on Wednesday because there were still problems with regard to the voter's list (DPT).

"The General Elections Commission (KPU) in its capacity as the organizer of the polls is no longer able to do its job and has lost its moral legitimacy," Ismet Hasan Putro said here over the week-end.

He said that the DPT problem had been questioned by many people and success teams of presidential candidates so that the problem had developed into a wide spectrum.

Ismet said that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) and KPU should assure that the people were able to exercise their voting rights. "As a nation, we all have to find a solution to the DPT problem to safeguard the dignity of democracy in Indonesia."
"If the July 8, 2009 presidential election has to be postponed eventually, this nation should not feel ashamed because it would be better to delay it rather than forcing ourselves to hold it as it may affect credibility and legitimacy which could create a new problem," he said.

Earlier, presidential candidate of the Golkar Party Jusuf Kalla (JK) said KPU should be able to resolve the voter's list (DPT) problem on Monday at the latest, or else, it should postpone Wednesday's presidential polls.

"Our team is urging the KPU to resolve the DPT problem before the deadline on Monday (July 6, 2009)," Kalla said on board a plane when on his way back to Jakarta from Surabaya on Saturday night.

He said that the DPT problem was a serious matter. It would be dangerous for the presidential race if the DPT problem remained unsolved.

Kalla said that if until the Monday deadline the DPT problem remained unsettled, the presidential elections process should be evaluated.

"The presidential elections can be postponed without disturbing the state's schedules. The calculations could be sped up," he said.

Kalla said that the problems arising from the voter's lists had emerged since the holding of the legislative elections last April 9. It could have happened due to one of two possible causes, namely wrong population administration or a deliberate intention.

"It emerged from the two factors," he said.

The KPU is scheduled to implement the presidential elections on Wednesday. Three presidential candidates are to contest in the July 8 presidential polls for the 2009-2014 term of office.

The three presidential and vice presidential pairs are Megawati Soekarnoputri and her running mate Prabowo Subianto (Mega-Pro), Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his pair Boediono (SBY-Boediono), and Jusuf Kalla who runs for president with Wiranto (JK-WIN).

Megawati is former president and leader of the Indonesian Democratic Party - Struggle (PDIP) while her mate Prabowo is the chairman of the Greater Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) party and a former commander of the Army's Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad).

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is incumbent president and chief patron of the Democratic Party (PD) while his running mate Boediono is a former governor of Bank Indonesia, the central bank.

Jusuf Kalla is incumbent vice president and chairman of the Golkar Party while Wiranto, a former commander of the Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI) and chairman of the People's Conscience Party (Hanura).

In the meantime, Megawati Soekarnoputri in a meeting at Muhammadiyah headquarters in Central Jakarta on Sunday evening demanded that the General Elections Commission (KPU) immediately correct the troubled voter's lists.
The Megawati-Prabowo pair expressed their optimism that the polling body could correct the voter's list as often called for as electoral roll in a day if it had the good will to do so.

The KPU will be able to make the corrections quickly by deleting double names and single identity numbers, names of dead voters, of armed servicemen and of child voters.

"The correction is not in our own interests but in the interest of the people and the democracy because it is not certain the unregistered voters will vote for Megawati or me," she said.

Megawati concurred and said the correction of the electoral roll was a must to ensure a free and fair election as she did during her tenure in 2004.

In response to the problematic voter's list, Herman Heri, member of the House's commission III on Sunday said the government should issue an instruction asking the General Elections Commission (KPU) to overcome the chaotic problem of the fixed voters' list (DPT) in 16 regions such as regencies, municipalities and provinces before the upcoming presidential polls.

"We hope the government issue an instruction to ask the KPU to overcome the confusion regarding the DPT immediately, so that the
eligible voters who had yet been included in the DPT for the presidential election, can exercise their political rights," he said.

He believed the DPT chaotic problem could become a time bomb for the government and the KPU itself, because the people's political rights to determine the fate of the nation through the presidential/vice president election on July 8 was ignored.

"People could become angry, because their political rights are ignored for a variety of reasons in the interest of certain political personal or group interests. Let's win in a peaceful way in a bid to create wisdom to lead this great nation," he said.

Herman Heri said the government seemed to let the KPU become responsible as the organizer of the presidential polls, so the government did not wish to participate in overcoming the DPT problem.

"Such attitude is correct viewed from its basic tasks and functions. But, what the people really want is for the government to show its good intention to help overcome the problem," Herman Heri said.

The House member from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) faction cited an example when the East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) province held a Kupang municipal direct election in 2007 where a number of illegible voters were not registered in the DPT prior to the polls.

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