High School dropouts will be allowed to become lawmakers: KPU<\/p>\n
Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
High school dropouts will be allowed to run in legislative
\nelections if they manage to get a letter of recognition from a
\nhigh school or the equivalent, a final draft instruction issued
\nby the General Elections Commission (KPU) says.<\/p>\n
KPU member Anas Purbaningrum said on Tuesday that the letter
\nof recognition must also be notarized by the Ministry of
\nEducation or the Ministry of Religious Affairs.<\/p>\n
"With this strict procedure, we are simply trying to take it
\nout of the individual schools' hands, as they might just issue
\nletters for prospective lawmakers, because people will doubt the
\ncredibility of the institutions," he told a press conference.<\/p>\n
Law No 12\/2003 on election requires legislative candidates to
\nhave a minimum education of high school or its equivalent.<\/p>\n
In Indonesia, there are a number of schools equivalent to high
\nschool including religious schools, or madrasah.<\/p>\n
Last week, the KPU launched its draft instruction on
\nlegislative nominations publicly to get feedback from the people.<\/p>\n
It will conclude the draft with Anas promising to pass the
\ndraft into an instruction later this week.<\/p>\n
Anas said people who meet the minimum education requirements
\nmust show a copy of their certificates with an official seal from
\nthe high school to become legislative candidates.<\/p>\n
Aside from the education requirement, the final draft
\ninstruction also states that a political party without leadership
\nin a particular province, regency or municipality, would not be
\nable to nominate legislators from that province, regency or
\nmunicipality.<\/p>\n
"This does not mean that a political party is not given an
\nequal chance to contest the election, but simply that the party
\nis just unable to use the opportunity to run in that province
\nbecause it has no official presence there," he said.<\/p>\n
Regarding the ranking of legislator candidates, KPU will leave
\nthe matter to parties, and they expect the Elections Supervisory
\nCommittee (Panwaslu) to investigate any corruption involved in
\nthose decisions.<\/p>\n
"We can't intervene in any party's affairs. If there are
\nscandals about the ranking, Panwaslu is supposed to handle it,"
\nAnas said.<\/p>\n
Regarding the maximum number of nominees, the KPU will return
\na list of total legislative candidates to each party if the
\nlatter submits the list surpassing the maximum quota in an
\nelectoral district, according to him.<\/p>\n
If the party makes the same mistake within 14 days after the
\nKPU returns the documents, the KPU would automatically eliminate
\nthe legislative candidates with the lowest ranking in the party,
\nhe added.<\/p>\n
The KPU will also return legislative candidate documents to
\nparties that failed to meet the 30 percent quota of female
\nlegislative candidates.<\/p>\n
If the party failed to get the documents right, KPU will
\nannounce publicly that the party had less than 30 percent quota
\nof female candidates, he added.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/high-school-dropouts-will-be-allowed-to-become-lawmakers-kpu-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}