O

nly 18 out of 95 City Council members attended a plenary session concerning the general opinions of party factions on five bylaw drafts proposed by the city administration on Wednesday.

Council Deputy Speaker Boy Sadikin, who led the meeting, said the reasons for absences at the meeting were varied, ranging from attending vote recapitulation in the legislative election in Jakarta and other '€œimportant occasions'€.

Boy said the members who attended the meeting of the Jakarta General Elections Commission (KPUD) were those who participated in this year'€™s election.

'€œThey joined the recapitulation process as they were worried they would not be reelected for the 2014-2019 period,'€ he said.

Boy said he was not bothered about the absence of the council members as it was their right to not attend the plenary meeting.

'€œIt'€™s okay if they did not show up but bylaws are their debt to the residents,'€ said the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) councilor.

United Development Party (PPP) faction chairman Matnoor Tindoan said many of his party members did not attend the session as they were participating in the PPP national meeting in Bogor, West Java.

Jakarta Deputy Governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama said it was usual that members were absent in a meeting.

'€œThe session did not need a quorum, many of them usually don'€™t bother to come,'€ he said.

Ahok said the members may have thought that the vote recapitulation was more important than the plenary session.

The plenary session heard the general opinions of party factions on five bylaw drafts '€” city agencies, billboards, levies, city-owned developer company PD Pembangunan Sarana Jaya and city-owned waste management firm PD PAL Jaya '€” proposed by the executive last week.

Most factions demanded more detailed explanations on the drafts as they concerned the Rp 72 trillion (US$6.19 billion) budget.

Endah S. Pardjoko of the Gerindra Party, for example, criticized the plan of the city administration to give a significant amount of budget to the waste management system.

'€œIs it wise enough to give PD Pal Jaya almost Rp 3 trillion given the current economic situation?'€ she said.

Meanwhile, Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) councilor Nasrullah called on the city administration to improve the managerial skills of PD Pembangunan Sarana Jaya before handing over a Rp 2 trillion capital injection.

'€œThe performance of the firm is still not good, especially when we compare it to the other city-owned property developer PT Jakarta Propertindo [Jakpro],'€ he said.

He also suggested the city administration make a business distinction between the firm and Jakpro as both companies dealt with the same business.