A plenary session at the House of Representatives, which should have approved a regulation-in-lieu-of-law (perppu) on the updated voter list, ended in a deadlock Tuesday due to objection from two factions.
The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the Reform Vanguard Star faction, consisting of small political parties in the House, disagreed with the regulation.
"We failed to reach a consensus because two factions insisted on rejecting the regulation's approval," PDI-P legislator Maruarar Sirait told The Jakarta Post.
The meeting reached a stalemate after both factions requested a vote to end the discussion, which was rejected by House speaker Agung Laksono.
Under an internal House regulation, if a meeting fails to reach a consensus on a policy, voting mechanisms serve as the last resort.
"However, the House speaker, Agung Laksono, refused to take our input into consideration and one-sidedly suspended the meeting without a vote until tomorrow," Maruarar said.
Agung is also deputy chairman of the Golkar Party.
Another PDI-P lawmaker, Gayus Lumbuun, said his party and the Reform Vanguard Star faction would not endorse the regulation.
The regulation authorizes the General Elections Commission (KPU) to update the voter list to allow more eligible but unregistered voters to cast their ballots in the April 9 legislative elections.
The PDI-P claimed the regulation would be used merely as legal protection for the incumbent government to deal with the recent voter list fiasco.
Political parties and civil society groups have slammed the disorganized management of the recent elections, with tens of millions of eligible voters being left unregistered on the final electoral roll and missing their opportunity to cast a ballot. They also accused the KPU and the government of deliberately creating this situation to give the incumbent President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his Democratic Party (PD) an unfair advantage in the elections.
The PDI-P demanded that the House only endorse the regulation once the authorities have resolved issues with the voter list.
There are 10 factions in the national legislature, with Golkar dominating the largest portion of the House's seats.
At a meeting last week, the Golkar Party agreed with the regulation and said they would approve of it.
"It is very plausible that we would lose regardless of whether this regulation is implemented or not. However, we don't care about winning or losing," Gayus said.
"What's more important is that we have demonstrated we stand by our decisions no matter what happens," he said.
Golkar lawmaker Hari Azhar Azis said the vote had been delayed to allow all the factions enough time to contemplate their decision.
"The House does not consist only of Golkar. We want to give other factions a chance, so in the end we can all meet eye-to-eye with one another *when lobbying this issue*," he said.
Azis said Golkar's recent fallout with the Democratic Party was not a factor in influencing Agung's decision to reject the voting process which ended Tuesday's plenary session.
Golkar chairman and Vice President Jusuf Kalla has publicly declared that he will run for the presidency, challenging Yudhoyono in the July 8 presidential election.
The regulation also allows for the double marking of ballot papers, which was not regulated under the 2008 election law. This was not discussed in Tuesday's plenary session. (hdt)
