T

he Supreme Court's decision to annul the results of the General Elections Commission's (KPU) second phase of legislative seat counting has cast a pall over the seat distribution process, although panic has yet to set in the electoral body.

KPU chairman Abdul Hafiz Anshary said Friday the KPU has yet to decide on how to handle the decision, which threatens to shift a significant number of seats from several minor parties to the three largest parties at the House of Representatives.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party, already the outright winner in April's polls, may get a windfall of an additional 30 seats.

Despite possible disproportionate representation stemming from the decision, Hafiz said the KPU would try to implement the Supreme Court's ruling on the second phase of ballot counting.

"I have to stress that in principle, the KPU will abide by all legally binding decisions," he said at the KPU office in Central Jakarta.

"But first of all, we will decide on how to implement the Constitutional Court's ruling, and then Supreme Court's first decision on the third phase of ballot counting.

"Then we'll decide on how to implement the Supreme Court's decision on the second phase."

The Supreme Court's latest ruling was made on June 18, but only announced yesterday.

According to the now annulled KPU regulation, the second phase of calculation involves the distribution of seats to parties, in which the parties who had gained seats during the first phase may not use the votes they have used in the first phase.

The method was used to ensure a more proportionate representation.

The Supreme Court ruling stipulates the votes used by the winning parties in the first phase must be used again in the second phase.

This will cause smaller parties with fewer votes to get fewer legislative seats, although the KPU had already finished allocating seats to these minor parties, which include the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) and the National Mandate Party (PAN).

At least 66 seats could be given to the big parties at the expense of the minor ones, according to a count by the Center for Electoral Reform (Cetro).

Hadar Gumay, executive director of CETRO, said the decision had the potential to create chaos in the electoral process, because the KPU was continually being forced to change the rules in accordance to court rulings favoring losing candidates.

"We are truly saddened over how the legislative election is developing," he said.

"The consequences of this decision are immense."

He added the decision would create a deeper sense of uncertainty over the legislative election results, as the rules might change yet again.

Hadar called on the KPU to take a stand and decide the final results with the corroborating methods to end the conflict, and further urged the commission to ask for a case review from the Supreme Court regarding its latest decision.

"We understand the KPU cannot just simply decide what to do - the ruling is legally binding," he said.