Local poll commissions reject most nominations
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.