Election commission appoints members of provincial boards

A'an Suryana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The General Elections Commission (KPU) appointed on Wednesday 150 people in 30 provinces as members of provincial elections commissions (KPUDs).

The appointment was completed after two-day plenary meetings at the KPU headquarters in Jakarta. The meetings were attended by all nine KPU members, except KPU chairman Nazaruddin Sjamsudin, who was still out of the country.

The provincial elections commission members will now select candidates as members of elections commissions at the regency level. According to KPU deputy chairman Ramlan Surbakti, these KPUD members have until June 13 to select and appoint members of KPUDs at the regency level.

Ramlan said KPU had adopted several criteria to select KPUD members at the provincial level, the most prominent of which was candidates' neutrality in politics.

Members of political parties were not allowed to enter the contest for KPUD membership. People who ran for legislative seats in the 1999 general election were also not allowed to join the contest.

"Such criteria are adopted strictly to ensure their neutrality in the 2004 general election," said Ramlan, who was accompanied by other KPU members, including Anas Urbaningrum and Mulyana W. Kusumah.

The 2004 general election will be held on April 5 next year to elect legislature members, followed by a direct presidential election between June and August 2004.

Another criterion was that KPUD member candidates must possess at least a bachelor degree, in order to assure their intellectual ability to cope with the election tasks, said Ramlan.

The main duty for KPUD members would be to verify the presence of political parties' regional chapters in order to determine their eligibility for the 2004 general election.

According to the political party law, each party must have chapters in 50 percent of provinces, regencies and municipalities nationwide.

Regarding the selection process of KPUD members, Ramlan said that the process was organized bottom-up.

At the initial stage, the governor of each province appointed an independent team to select 10 persons eligible to contest the membership of KPUD. The governor then proposed the 10 names to KPU.

KPU members examined the curriculum vitae of each candidate, interviewed candidates one by one and asked for inputs from local legislature members on certain candidates.

The result of the interviews was taken to Jakarta, where KPU members selected five people in each province to form provincial elections commissions.