House inquiry committee may summon president

The House of Representatives (DPR) special committee for an inquiry into the recent fixed voter lists (DPTs) fiasco may summon President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono if his clarification is needed, a spokesman said.

"The committee may very well call for the president to clarify things , if necessary," the committee`s chairman, Gayus Lumbuun, said here Thursday

But whether the president`s statements were really needed depended on what the committee had found in its foregoing investigation, he added.

Lumbuun also dismissed the assumption of certain quarters that the General Elections Commission (KPU) could not be asked to answer the committee`s questions because the KPU was an independent body.

He said under existing laws, the House committee had the power to summmon at any time the KPU or any body else believed able to provide information which it needed.

The House and any of its organs were under existing laws empowered to summon or force anybody -- state officials, legal entities or individuals -- to provide information for an inquiry, Lumbuun said.

The politician from the Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDIP) said the first thing the committee would do was strengthen its working group by inviting experts and people with relevant knowledge to join it.

The House had decided to conduct an inquiry on the DPT issue following widespread dissatisfaction about iregularities in the fixed voter lists used in the April 9 legislative elections which had prevented millions of eligible voters from exercising their voting right.