800 legislative candidates may be disqualified from election
800 legislative candidates may be disqualified from election
Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
After conducting a second verification, the General Elections
Commission (KPU) announced on Tuesday that between 5 and 10
percent of some 8,000 legislative nominees were not eligible for
the April polls.
KPU member Anas Urbaningrum, who chairs the legislative
screening, said most of the failed candidates were not registered
as party members, failed to submit wealth reports or had not
relinquished their status as state employees.
But Anas confirmed the KPU did find any candidates who
submitted fake school certificates as happened in provincial and
regental levels.
He said KPU would allow candidates who failed to submit
photographs, saying a photograph was not a substantial to bar
them from running.
Leaders of political parties will announce on Wednesday
evening candidates who passed the second screening.
KPU will publicly announce the final list of eligible
legislative candidates on Thursday.
Anas said there was one party that had more than 100
candidates disqualified.
KPU deputy chairman Ramlan Surbakti said the Prosperous
Justice Party (PKS) was the only one that had all candidates
qualified, but a source said there was another party which also
recorded a 100 percent record.
According to initial data collected from political parties,
there were 8,871 legislative hopefuls registered with KPU, but
data issued by the KPU media center revealed the number stood at
8,259 as of Dec. 29, 2003.
The legislative election is on April 5, with the direct
presidential election first round on July 5, and a possible
second run-off on Sept. 20.
Earlier in the day, KPU member Mulyana W. Kusumah said the
commission would take over the role to screen legislative and
regional representative (DPD) candidates representing West Irian
Jaya from the local KPUD which refused to do so.
"But we'll only conduct administrative verification on those
people. We have no time to carry out full factual verifications
as on Feb. 1, their data should have been put into the ballot
paper along with the other candidates," he said.
Based on KPU's latest data, West Irian Jaya had nine DPD
nominees and 492 legislative candidates from six political
parties.
On Jan. 19, Papua KPUD sent a letter to KPU, saying it would
not process the legislative hopefuls from West Irian Jaya due to
its busy schedule.
"Therefore, any activities conducted by West Irian Jaya KPUD
secretariat is not our responsibility," Papua KPU chairman Ferry
Kareth said in a letter.
He said KPU had not yet sent a letter that instructed Papua
KPUD to screen the West Irian Jaya candidates.
Separately, Papua special autonomy lawyer team led by Bambang
Widjojanto, representing Papua Provincial Legislative Council
chairman John Ibo, sent a second warning to KPU to annul the
latter's decision on the establishment of West Irian Jaya
electoral districts.
Bambang also said that his team also objected to the seat
allocation for the West Irian Jaya Provincial Legislative Council
and Regencies Legislative Council.
"Under KPU Instruction No. 672/2003, KPU allots 44 seats to
West Irian Jaya Provincial Legislative Council, while the
province's population is only 567,894 people. This violates Law
No. 12/2003 on General Elections, which stipulates a province
with a population of less than 1 million should be allotted 35
seats for the provincial legislative council," he said.