Jakarta KPUD to get its five members

Jakarta KPUD to get its five members

Arya Abhiseka, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Despite criticism surrounding the process of fit and proper test
to elect members of the Jakarta General Elections Commission
(Jakarta KPUD), the General Elections Commission (KPU) is still
optimistic about finding eligible candidates to fill the five
vacant seats.

"We will have selected the five members for the Jakarta KPUD
between May 19 and May 20, as planned. The quality of the
candidates were considerably solid," said Nazaruddin Sjamsuddin,
chairman of the KPU, who conducted the test for the Jakarta KPUD
on Sunday.

Although Nazaruddin told The Jakarta Post that there would be
eligible candidates from the available nominees, he did not deny
the fact that most of the candidates were still quite far from
the desired standard for members of the KPUD.

Some criticism has been raised after the KPU, due to time and
budget constraints, sent only one of its nine members to conduct
a fit and proper test to select five KPUD members for each
province nationwide.

Each member is to travel to several provinces and bring back
interview recordings and documents on the suitability test, which
are to be submitted to the commission plenary meeting. The
selected KPUD members are to be made public nationwide either on
May 19 or May 20.

Candidates to fill the KPUDs posts were screened based on
their general and technical knowledge on the mechanism of the
2004 general elections.

"What the KPU has done is clearly ineffective to attain the
best results from the candidates, as only one person witnessed
the entire process.

"They said that the recordings and documents would be used
only if a candidate was considered ineligible. If their reasoning
is to tackle budget and time constraints, simply listening to
recordings and going through documents will not save the KPU any
time," said Hadar Gumay from the Center for Electoral Reform
(CETRO).

The ten candidates competing for the five seats at the Jakarta
KPUD include: Ariza Putra from the Indonesian National Youth
Committee (KNPI); Juri Ardianto from the Independent Election
Monitoring Committee (KIPP); M. Taufik from the Jakarta Research
Center (PPEJ); Hamdan Rasyid from the Indonesian Ulemas Council
(MUI); Rachman Nansyaah from the academic community and Tubagus
Haryo Kardiyanto from the Legal Aid Institute (LBH).

The remaining four candidates are public figures Parnawaty
Khalid, Imas Sidik, Mufliza and Nursyamsiah.

The KPUD is the KPU's provincial branch in organizing the
upcoming 2004 general elections.

An independent team that was set up previously by the Jakarta
governor nominated 10 candidates from about 192 who registered
for the KPUD slots. The 10 candidates would then be pared down by
the KPU to fill the five available seats.

The five members of the Jakarta KPUD will then elect five
members for the KPUD in each of the Indonesian capital's five
mayoralties and Kepulauan Seribu regency.

Indonesia will have its first direct legislative election on
April 5 next year, which will be followed by the direct
presidential election between June and August.