Parties in the dark about securing House seats

As the General Elections Commission (KPU) is yet to provide details of the calculations methods used to distribute seats in the House of Representatives, most parties are unsure whether their candidates are among the winners.

Denny Taloga, deputy head of the Democratic Party's general elections board in Jakarta, said he was sure they had secured five seats in two of Jakarta's electoral districts.

"But we don't know whether we will get more than two or three seats in Jakarta electoral district 2," Denny said Monday.

Yulte Marjon, Jakarta's campaign manager for the United Development Party (PPP), said the party's calculations had shown it could win a seat in the East Jakarta municipality, but had not yet received any confirmation of this from the KPU. "Even the media is misleading. This morning I read in a newspaper that a candidate in South Jakarta won, but our calculations showed the seat was won in East Jakarta," he said.

The KPU announced the distribution of all 560 seats at the House, but did not provide details of the 77 electoral districts, including Jakarta's three electoral districts. Of the 21 House seats for Jakarta, six were contested in Jakarta's district 1, seven in district 2 and eight in district 3.

Perkasa Alam, deputy head of the Great Indonesia Movement Party's (Gerindra) Jakarta chapter, confirmed two candidates as new House members. "Our internal calculation shows we may have secured three seats from Jakarta but so far we can only confirm two names," Perkasa said.

The Center for Electoral Reform predicted earlier that two of six seats in district 1 would go to the Democratic Party, and the remaining four seats would go to Gerindra candidates, the National Mandate Party (PAN), Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and the Indonesia Democratic Party of Struggle. PAN official, Wanda Hamidah, denied the result, while PKS official, Achmad Rilyadi, claimed they won four seats. (hwa)