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Elections may be postponed because of haze

With the government considering declaring a national emergency over forest fires, Home Minister Tjahjo Kumolo said local elections may have to be postponed if haze engulfing much of Sumatra and Kalimantan lasts until Dec

Fedina S. Sundaryani and Tama Salim (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Wed, October 28, 2015

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Elections may be postponed because of haze

W

ith the government considering declaring a national emergency over forest fires, Home Minister Tjahjo Kumolo said local elections may have to be postponed if haze engulfing much of Sumatra and Kalimantan lasts until Dec. 9.

'€œIf some regencies and districts are still affected by severe haze by [Dec. 9], then the elections might be postponed,'€ Tjahjo said on the sidelines of a discussion at the Institute of Police Science (PTIK) in South Jakarta on Tuesday.

Tjahjo added that the elections would take place soon afterwards and would not have to wait until the next round of local elections in 2017.

Data from the People'€™s Voter Education Network (JPRR) show that 48 regencies and cities may not be able to conduct the elections on time as a result of the haze, including 14 in Central Kalimantan, seven in South Sumatra, nine in Riau, seven in West Kalimantan and 11 in Jambi.

Meanwhile, Vice President Jusuf Kalla said President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo was expected to make a decision on declaring a state of national emergency after returning from the United States.

An aide to the Vice President, Wijayanto Samirin, was quoted by Reuters as saying that elevating the crisis to national emergency status would allow the government to speed up procurement for much-needed foreign firefighting equipment.

But he added there were concerns that businesses could use such a move to declare force majeure on deals in sectors ranging from palm oil to banking.

Kalla said about 40 million people in five provinces had been affected by the haze. The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) said late on Monday that haze was starting to spread south toward Java, which is home to more than half of the country'€™s people.

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives remains divided over a plan to establish a special committee on haze, as was recently proposed by members of House Commission IV overseeing agriculture, forestry, fisheries and the environment.

Deputy House Speaker Agus Hermanto of the Democratic Party backed the proposal, arguing that the government had not been serious enough in its mitigation efforts from the very beginning.

'€œThe mitigation efforts are a little too late '€” if only the issue had been tackled seriously early on. Therefore, [the establishment of] a special committee will improve [such efforts],'€ Agus told reporters at the House complex in Jakarta on Tuesday.

Agus said the House committee would be able to summon firms allegedly responsible for the massive forest and peatland fires to gather information that could be used by law enforcement agencies to launch investigations and eventually lead to prosecutions.

He added that the presence of a special committee would push the government to work harder to resolve the haze issue than the present working committee on environment initiated by the House.

He indicated that the problem rested with the fact that only the Environment and Forestry Ministry had observed the recommendations given, while the rest of the government had only recently shown serious intent under Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut B. Pandjaitan, with ministers starting to travel to the regions affected.

According to House Comission IV deputy chairman Viva Yoga Mauladi, the commission has secured support from 57 lawmakers for the establishment of a special committee on haze.

Meanwhile, House Speaker Setya Novanto balked at the proposal for a special committee, given that both the central and local governments were doing their best to combat the fires.

'€œI think that the government has done well, so the proposal for a special committee is not really necessary,'€ Setya said.
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