House to allow independent to contest elections
House to allow independent to contest elections
Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Independent candidates should be allowed to contest local
elections provided they have not been affiliated to a political
party for four years, the House of Representatives legislation
committee says.
The proposal was adopted by the committee on Tuesday in
revisions to Law No. 22/1999 on regional administrations.
The draft revision will be sent to a plenary meeting for
further deliberation as will government-sponsored revisions of
the law.
"We hope the amended law will take effect in October next
year, three months after the inauguration of legislative
councils," committee chairman Zein Badjeber said Tuesday.
Zein, of the United Development Party (PPP) faction, said
amendments to the 1999 law aimed to improve the elections of
regents and governors and the composition of the legislative
councils in regencies and provinces.
Patrialis Akbar of the Reform faction said the draft would
pave the way for an overhaul of the regional administration law,
which many say has given too much power to regional
administrations.
"Other issues, such as borders between regions and relations
between regional administrations and central government will be
discussed later," Patrialis said.
Earlier, Ferry Mursyidan Baldan of Golkar said legislators
were planning to revise all the articles in the law, which was
implemented in 2000.
There has been concerns among the public over practices of
money politics in the election of governors or regents by local
legislative councils in several provinces. The practices
encourage the elected officials to abuse their powers during
their terms in office in order to recover the money they spent to
bribe councillors to vote for them.
Article 38 of the draft revision states that gubernatorial and
regental candidates and their running mates are elected directly
by the people.
The candidates can be nominated by political parties, a group
of parties or individuals, the article says.
Names of the candidates shall be submitted to the respective
regional general elections commission (KPUD).
Individual candidates must enjoy support from a certain number
of people and will be decided on by the regional general
elections commissions, the draft says.
Individuals contesting the elections must not hold positions
in or have been affiliated to political parties for at least four
years before they register for the election.