Additional House seats proposed

JAKARTA: A legislator and a law expert have proposed creating 115 more seats in the House of Representatives in a bid to resolve the prolonged election dispute between "losing" legislative candidates and the General Elections Commission (KPU).

Harun Al-Rasyid, from the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), and expert Ikhsan Abdullah blamed the seat allocation dispute on the polling body which has failed to maintain its independence.

"If the KPU takes the Supreme Court (MA) verdict, small parties will lose more seats; if it decides to comply with that of the Constitutional Court, the 115 legislators suing the KPU will lose their seats. To compromise, political laws should be revised to increase the number of seats to 675 from the current 560," Harun said in a discussion here on Friday.

Ikhsan said it was impossible for the House or government to review the political laws to accommodate the political aspirations of the losing candidates or their parties. - JP