Fraudulence found in DPD candidacy

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Jakarta General Elections Commission (KPU DKI) officials said on Tuesday that many candidates eying a seat on the Regional Representatives Council (DPD) have falsified their supporters identities to reach the minimum requirement of 3,000 supporters.

KPU DKI chairman Muhammad Taufik said on Tuesday that the commission had taken out seven more names from the list, making a total of 27 candidates ousted in the first screening of their administrative requirements.

Taufik said that the disqualified candidates failed to collect the minimum of 3,000 supporters as many of the supporters also supported other candidates.

"Moreover, during the verification process, we suspect fake IDs were used," he said.

One of the disqualified candidates was Ida Megawati, said Taufik. Ida claimed to have 23,400 supporters in her bid but after further examination, it turned out that she only had 2,751 IDs that were duplicated several times. Of the 2,751 ID cards, only 1,014 ID cards were valid, 719 others were multiple copies, 113 were also submitted by other candidates and 559 ID cards had expired. The remaining ID cards were fake.

Taufik said the use of multiple ID cards, in which one person has several ID cards issued by various subdistricts, was common.

"We will report the irregularities to officials of the Elections Supervision Commission (Panwaslu)," he said.

Chairman of the Foundation of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute (YLBHI), Munarwan, pointed out that the deliberate use of fake ID cards was a violation of Article 137 of Law No. 12/2003 on general elections.

The article stipulates that, if found guilty, the perpetrator can be sentenced to 18 months in prison.

KPU DKI member Ariza Patria said that the commission started to examine candidates' documents on Tuesday, including a field check on the institutions that issued the candidates' ID cards, school diplomas and certificates. The second screening is set to last until Oct. 21.

Between Oct. 14 and Oct. 18, the commission verification team will visit the remaining 78 candidates to check if they have lived in the capital for three consecutive years or 10 years after they reached the age of 17.

Between Oct. 17 and Oct. 22, a random field check on 10 percent of the supporters claimed by each candidate will take place.