Thu, 17 Apr 2003

443 people register in bid for KPUD commission

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

As many as 443 people have been registered to undergo the first stage of the selection process to become members of the city's provincial elections commission (KPUD) and the commissions for its five municipalities and one regency.

During the selection process, which started on Wednesday, candidates competed for positions on the five-member KPUD at provincial level, and 30 additional positions in five municipalities and one regency, each commission of which will have five members.

From over 400 people who took application forms for candidates at KPUD provincial level, only 192 people had returned them to the secretariat of the selection team by the deadline on Tuesday.

Registered candidates for commission membership at municipality/regency levels number 30 from Central Jakarta, 45 from West Jakarta, 79 from North Jakarta, 72 from East Jakarta, 34 from South Jakarta and 23 from Thousand Islands regency.

Syamsul Maarif, a member of the selection team, said on Wednesday that candidates who had passed the first selection process on Thursday would take part in psychometric tests, and those short-listed would be interviewed.

"After the interviews, the team will select 30 candidates for provincial level. They will have to submit themselves to public scrutiny. The selection team will place their names in newspaper advertisements, to give the public a chance to make their comments," Syamsul added.

A similar procedure will also be used for KPU candidates at municipality and regency levels.

Syamsul added that from the 30 candidates for the provincial KPUD, the team would select 10 of the KPU provincial members, who will have been installed by Governor Sutiyoso. The names of the selected members would then be submitted to the national General Elections Commission (KPU).

Syamsul also said the selection team would submit 10 names as candidates for each of the municipality and regency levels.

KPU will select five of them to become Jakarta KPUD members and also five for each municipality- and regency-level KPU.

The five KPUD members from Jakarta, together with other KPUD members from others provinces, will be installed in late May in Jakarta, while regency- and municipality-level KPU members are scheduled to be inaugurated in mid-June in the provincial capital concerned.

Members of the elections commissions at provincial and regency/municipality levels will work for five years. Their official monthly salaries have not been revealed, but are estimated to be around Rp 7 million for provincial-level and Rp 3 million for regency/municipality-level KPU members.