The House of Representatives has given the green light to an application for a government regulation-in-lieu of law (perppu) on the double marking of ballot papers in the upcoming elections.

The regulation issued by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono last week aims to reduce the number of illegitimate ballots being cast by allowing voters to mark ballot papers twice, and also provides the legal basis for the National Election Commission (KPU) to update voter lists.

“Basically we agree when it comes to this regulation as it will hopefully avoid a delay in election procedures,” Andi Yuliani Paris of the National Mandate Party (PAN) told journalists on the sidelines of the meeting.

Chozin Chumaydi, a legislator from the United Development Party (PPP), said his party had no objection to the nature of the regulation, praising the President for his action in preparing for a smooth election process.  

“That’s why we will not discuss the content of the regulation in our next meeting. What we will now consider is whether we need to transform the regulation into law by ratifying it so that it can permanently be used,” he said.

“If we rejected the regulation then it would only be applicable in the 2009 election,” Chozin added.

The double marking stipulation refers to voters indicating both the party logo and specific party candidate in the same column when they cast their ballots in the upcoming elections.

The House’s Commission II overseeing elections and legal affairs decided to postpone discussions as to whether or not they would ratify the regulation until after the legislative election in April.

“This regulation has to be evaluated in the next House meeting in April, as is required by the 1945 constitution,” Andi said.

“This is a mechanism that needs to be followed,” Andi said, adding that even if the House still doesn’t make any decision about that issue, the elections would continue.

“The election will not be delayed, even though we will not be discussing this regulation before the elections occur,” Chozin said.

However, Golkar legislator Ferry Mursyidan Baldan said the House should decide sooner rather than later whether to approve or reject the regulation.  

“This regulation is being applied right now, so sooner or later we will have to decide,” he said.

Under to the Constitution, a regulation must be approved or rejected by the House of Representatives. Previously, some members of the House of Representatives questioned the motive behind the issuance of Government Regulation-in-Lieu-of-Law No. 1/2009, signed last week by the President.

They claimed the new regulation was “highly controversial” because it was issued only a few days before the House went into recess from March 3 to April 19.

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