Many candidates to be ruled out of 2004 elections, official says

Many candidates to be ruled out of 2004 elections, official says

Apriadi Gunawan and Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post,
Medan/Bandung

While political parties nationwide scrambled to return their
legislative candidates' papers before Monday's deadline, a Medan
official predicted many candidates would be ruled ineligible to
contest the upcoming elections.

North Sumatra General Election Commission (KPUD) chairman
Irham Buana Nasution said on Monday that based on his preliminary
findings, many candidates had still failed to attach school
diplomas or had not yet completed lists detailing their assets.

"Others have resigned from their candidacies after earlier
handing in their nomination papers," said Irham, who started
receiving completed papers three weeks ago.

The KPU had initially required legislative candidates to hand
in their nomination papers by December last year. It extended the
deadline to Jan. 19 after it became obvious candidates'
applications were being returned incomplete. The new deadlines
see KPU and KPUDs nationwide checking candidates' papers from
Tuesday until Jan. 27. The final approved lists of candidates
will be announced on Jan. 28 and 29.

Five political parties in the area had so far returned all
their legislative candidates' nomination papers, Irham said. But
an initial scrutiny of the returned papers showed more than 20 of
these candidates would now not be contesting the elections.

Two candidates had failed to attach their school diplomas, one
candidate failed to write a list of personal assets, while 10
would be ineligible because they had not yet resigned from their
jobs as civil servants, he said. Ten others had ruled themselves
out, quitting the legislative race after earlier handing in their
papers.

All the candidates who pulled out in the area were from the
Golkar Party and had resigned because they were unhappy with
their low rankings on the party list, Irham said.

Those candidates who still had incomplete applications had
until midnight Monday to complete them. If they failed to meet
the deadline, they would be barred from contesting the 2004
elections and would be replaced by other lower-ranking candidates
on their party lists.

Meanwhile, in the West Java capital of Bandung, eight
legislative candidates pulled out on Monday before the deadline.

They included three from Golkar Party, two from the Indonesian
Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and one each from the
Indonesian Unity Party (PSI), the National Mandate Party (PAN)
and the United Development Party (PPP).

Of the reasons for quitting, five resigned after admitting
their school diplomas were fakes or invalid, one was under the
required 21 years of age and three others admitted they could not
fulfill "other requirements."

At the last count, the Bandung mayoral council had 718
prospective candidates competing for 45 seats.