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.