KPU TO DECIDE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION SCHEDULES SOON

Jakarta, Jan 21 (ANTARA) - The General Elections Commission (KPU) will soon decide the 2009 presidential and vice presidential election schedules soon, KPU Chairman Abdul Hafiz said here on Wednesday.

He said that KPU members had arranged schedules for the elections but they would still be discussed again in a plenary session before a fixed schedule was to be decided.
"The schedules that have been arranged by KPU members have not yet been approved and have not yet been decided in a plenary session," he said.
In arranging the presidential election schedule, the KPU members coordinated with the Constitutional Court (MK). It took into account the time needed to settle a possible conflict arising in the legislative elections.
For that purpose, KPU had earlier asked MK to settle soon a possible dispute over the legislative election. But then, KPU in arranging the elections schedule, no longer took into account the time needed for the settlement of the conflict.
"It seems that an MK ruling would not affect the nomination of a presidential and vice presidential candidates. So, that became the basis for our decision to arrange schedules," he said.
In order to nominate a presidential and vice presidential candidates, a political party should meet certain conditions on the votes it won.
Hafiz said KPU would therefore decide the presidential election schedules based on its decision on May 9, 2009 on the results of the April legislative elections 2009, not after the settlement of the conflict in the MK.
"The KPU decision on May 9, 2009 on the results of the April legislative elections would be used by political parties as a basis for nominating their presidential and vice presidential candidates," Hafiz said.
He said that if a possible dispute in the MK was not taken into account, the first round of presidential and vice presidential elections could be decided on July 9, 2009, and the second round early in September, 2009.
KPU has earlier set a schedule for the first round presidential elections on July 28, 2009.***