The Supreme Court's decision to annul the results of the General Elections Commission's (KPU) second phase of legislative seat counting may result in President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party gaining an extra 31 legislative seats, at the expense of minor parties.
Two other major parties, Golkar and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), are also set to benefit from the ruling, and will likely receive 19 and 16 extra seats respectively. Golkar could see its 106 seats become 125, and the PDI-P could end up with 111, from 95 originally.
Six minor parties will see their number of seats in the House reduced. Prabowo Subianto's Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) and Wiranto's People's Conscience Party (Hanura) will be the biggest losers, with Gerindra losing nine seats and Hanura losing four.
"Based on Cetro's calculations, the Democratic Party could obtain an extra 31 seats. That will give the party a total of 180 of the 560 seats in the House," an expert from the Center for Electoral Reform (Cetro), Refly Harun, said.
"On the other hand, Gerindra could lose the most seats."
The KPU says the second phase of calculations of seats included eligible votes not counted in the first phase. This, they say, gave parties that failed to obtain any seats in the first phase, a second chance.
However, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the commission was incorrect.
The Supreme Court interpreted that the second phase calculations had to include all the votes obtained by parties, not just the left-overs.
Refly warned, however, that although the court had the authority to judicially review the commission's decision, it should consider the impact its ruling could have on seat allocations.
"The decision could cause a lot of chaos and dispute over legislative seats. It also, in a way, could create a large margin of disproportion between the parties' actual vote percentages in the elections and the seat percentage in the House."
Gerindra secretary-general Ahmad Muzani said the Supreme Court's ruling was confusing.
"The Constitutional Court ruled that the commission's interpretation was legitimate.
"However, the Supreme Court is now saying that the interpretation is not legitimate. This is confusing," he said.
Meanwhile, the KPU said it would not discuss the ruling until it has finished counting ballots from the presidential election. (hdt)
