Indonesia to bring draft law for 2009 polls

The Indonesian government plans to tighten requirements for political parties wishing to contest the 2009 general election.

The Indonesian government plans to tighten requirements for political parties wishing to contest the 2009 general election, which can include streamlining the number of political parties.

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However, it will continue to protect freedom of association, including freedom to establish political parties, a senior Home Ministry official said here on Thursday.

The ministry's director general of national unity and politics, Sudarsono, said one way of tightening the selection of election participants would be through streamlining the number of political parties.

He said streamlining the number of election participants would become a necessity in connection with the harmonisation of the presidential system of government.

Seven issues would dominate discussions of the draft political law, namely streamlining of political parties, electoral threshold, closed or open proportional system of nomination, quota for women in parliament, voting rights of military and policemen, national and regional election regimes and legal basis for organisations under political parties.

The mechanism to prepare and draft the laws for the requirements is likely to be discussed by the ministry and the House of Representatives next week.