Local poll commissions reject most nominations

The Jakarta Post, Padang/Bandung/Mataram

A number of Local General Election Commissions (KPUD) complained on Monday about the lists of legislative candidates submitted by the country's political parties, as well as the candidates themselves, saying that most of the candidates' nomination papers had failed to meet the requirements set by the national General Elections Commission (KPU) and the law.

In the West Sumatra capital of Padang, some 600 out of a total of 648 legislative candidates (or 90 percent) failed to complete the administrative requirements.

"We have returned the defective nominations to the political parties concerned.

They will have to correct them by Jan. 19 at the latest," said Mufti Syarfii, the chairman of the West Sumatra provincial KPU.

Mufti said that the candidates had mostly failed to comply with the administrative requirements, such as submitting photocopies of diplomas, medical certificates or declarations from the district court that they never been convicted of a criminal offense.

In the West Java capital of Bandung, the percentage of defective nominations was even higher. A member of the West Java provincial KPU, Memet Abdul Hakim, revealed that all 1392 electoral hopefuls from the province had failed to meet the requirements set by the KPU and Law No. 22/2003 on general elections.

Similar to the candidates in Sumatra, the West Java hopefuls failed to include such things as school diplomas and photocopies of their ID cards in their nominations. Some also submitted diplomas that had not been validated by their respective schools, but rather by officers from the West Java military command.

This has given rise to doubts among the members of the West Java KPU as to the authenticity of these diplomas.

Memet said that the provincial KPU had returned the nominations to the political parties concerned, which were expected to subsequently return to the candidates.

"This is very disappointing. It raises the question as to whether or not they had enough time to complete the applications," said Memet.

Memet said that the KPU would return the nominations to the political parties on Tuesday, and that the candidates and their parties would have to correct and return them by Jan. 19. "If they still fail to satisfy the requirements, the KPU will scrap their nominations and announce this to the public," said Memet.

The similar situation prevailed in the West Nusa Tenggara capital of Mataram, where most of the candidates also failed to satisfy the requirements.

Zainul Adi, a member of the West Nusa Tenggara KPU, said that mistakes had also been made by the parties. "Some of the parties forgot to include the number of legislative candidates, which determines the priority of the candidates on the ballot papers," he said.

Once again, many candidates failed to include the necessary documents, such as school diplomas.

The West Nusa Tenggara KPU will hold a meeting on Tuesday with party representatives and the candidates to inform them how to go about completing and submitting the nomination papers correctly.