Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Sun, 04/06/2008 10:45 AM
The General Elections Commission (KPU) officially announced the legislative elections will be held on April 5, 2009, to select new members for the House of Representatives, provincial and municipal legislative councils and the Regional Representative Council.
The announcement was made here Saturday after the government handed over the latest list of potential voters for the elections.
"The KPU is now ready to carry out the 2009 election process," KPU chairman Abdul Hafiz Anshary told reporters.
Home Affairs Minister Mardiyanto handed over the list of potential voters while Foreign Affairs Minister Hassan Wirayuda had a list of potential voters living abroad.
The data shows there are 224 million potential voters with 1.6 million of them currently living overseas.
"We will update the data to confirm names. We hope to announce the temporary voters list in August," Abdul said.
He said the KPU and its chapters in regions would need three months to verify the data.
"We have discussed methods, including assigning staff in each of the planned polling stations to get the voters' updated data," said Abdul.
"We also hope the public checks whether or not their names have been registered and are on the temporary voters list."
The commission fears there could be many changes of data from the government.
"Some potential voters might have passed away or are still registered as police officers, who were previously unable to vote," said Abdul.
The 2008 general elections law stipulates the election body has to announce the eligible voters' names nine months prior to the voting date.
As of Monday, the KPU will also open registration for political parties running in next year's elections.
Andi Nurpati of the KPU, who deals with the verification of political parties, said all parties must register before May 12.
"The KPU will announce the parties which qualify for the elections on July 5," she said.
She added the KPU would carry out the verification process for 58 political parties within three months.
The Human Rights and Justice Ministry announced last Friday only 24 new parties passed administrative screening.
Andi said the KPU's audit would determine whether the parties met the requirements set in the 2008 political parties law.
The law requires the party to have at least 50 members with chapters in at least 60 percent of the country's 33 provinces and branches in 50 percent of over 500 regencies.
The law also obliges the parties to allocate 30 percent of their central board executive seats to women.
