22 candidates named for election commission
JAKARTA (JP): The House of Representatives announced on Monday it had received a list of 22 candidates for the General Elections Commission (KPU) from President Abdurrahman Wahid.
Deputy House Speaker A.M. Fatwa said the House, which received the list on Friday, would approve half of these candidates for the commission, as stipulated in the law on general elections which the legislative body approved in June this year.
"As required by the law, the House will select the candidates from among those suggested by the President," Fatwa, who is also the deputy chairman of the National Mandate Party (PAN), said during a plenary session of the House.
The chairman of House Commission II for legal and domestic affairs, Ferry Mursyidan Baldan, said unlike government officials, the candidates would not be selected through a fit-and-proper test.
"There will be no fit-and-proper test. We will only hold a dialog," Ferry, a legislator from Golkar Party, said.
He said a number of the candidates possessed the necessary qualifications and had experience from last year's general election.
Among the candidates are the former chairman of the Indonesian Islamic Student Association, Anas Urbaningrum, and the chairman of the Independent Election Monitoring Committee, Mulyana W. Kusumah. Both were part of the 11-member team which selected the political parties to contest last year's poll.
Other candidates include University of Indonesia political lecturers Chusnul Mariyah, Nazaruddin Sjamsuddin and Valina Singka, Airlangga University political lecturers Daniel Sparingga and Ramlan Surbakti, University of Indonesia sociologist Imam B. Prasodjo, Muslim scholar Komaruddin Hidayat and Catholic priest Mudji Sutrisno.
The chairman of the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association, Hendardi, and Rachman Tolleng, an activist from the 1966 Group of Student Protesters, which helped topple founding president Sukarno and put Soeharto into power, also were nominated by Abdurrahman for the commission.
The House of Representatives endorsed on June 5 the general election bill, which replaced Law No. 3/1999.
The establishment of an independent KPU as outlined in the State Policy Guidelines is seen as urgent because the original KPU, which consisted of representatives of the 48 political parties taking part in last year's general election, was accused by many of being partial and unprofessional.
When the government first asked the original KPU to disband, members of the commission, particularly those from minor political parties, refused to assent to the termination of the commission. In the end, however, they agreed to comply and disbanded in June. (jun)