Panwaslu warns of fake diplomas from candidates

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Election Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu) revealed on Friday its suspicion that thousands of legislative candidates had submitted fake diplomas to the General Elections Commission (KPU) among their required application documents.

Panwaslu deputy chairman Saut H. Sirait said the candidates in question had presented certificates from a learning program for high school dropouts, the Paket C program, which would enable them to run in the regional legislative election.

Most of the cases are in Jakarta, Central Java, East Java, Bali, West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan and South Kalimantan.

Saut said the suspicion was not unfounded, as the certificates were mostly issued in 2003 and many of the aspirants had obtained them from regencies or provinces of which they were not residents.

He also said many of the certificates were issued by the local office of the ministry of education, not by the schools that hosted the program.

"These findings indicate aspirants have tried to falsify their certificates," Saut said.

He said, for example, that candidates from Bali had obtained certificates from Bekasi, West Java, while those from West Kalimantan had certificates issued in Tangerang, Banten.

"The great number of cases have made us suspicious. We will investigate the cases, but it will take time," he said.

He admitted the Panwaslu had not yet found similar cases among candidates to the House of Representatives, due to difficulties in obtaining their documents.

The Elections Law says legislative aspirants must be high school graduates or high school dropouts who had passed the final exams after attending the government-sanctioned Paket C program.

The KPU and its regional chapters expect legislative candidates to submit complete documents on Jan. 19 at the latest; otherwise they will be disqualified.

A second verification process will be conducted from Jan. 20 to Jan. 26 before the KPU announce the final line-up of candidates on Jan. 28 and Jan. 29.

Saut said the Panwaslu would also follow up reports that a number of civil servants may have still received January salaries from the state, although they had resigned in December from their posts in order to contest the general elections.

Meanwhile, the Panwaslu submitted on Friday its 15-point amendment to the campaign instructions issued by the KPU.

Saut said that among the proposed revisions were a definition of what constitutes a campaign and other campaign activities that did not violate the General Elections Law.

The instructions define an election campaign of political parties and/or regional legislative candidates as those activities held to promote their political platforms through the mass media and at open or closed venues to non-member voters to obtain maximum support during a particular period set by the KPU.

Saut said this definition was not in line with the General Elections Law, which did not include the condition, "to obtain maximum support".

"This disparity would cause a different legal consequence if a violation is committed during campaigns. Under the General Election Law, law enforcers are not obligated to prove the condition, 'to obtain maximum support'," he said.

If the KPU insisted on its definition, he said, the Panwaslu would refer to the General Election Law instead.

Saut also said the KPU should clearly delineate other campaign activities that do not violate the General Elections Law, or parties would easily abuse the campaign instructions.

"For example, the KPU must explicitly add mass rallies, music concerts, public contests and walk-a-thons in its instructions. If it fails do so, parties will say that such activities are not considered campaigns," he said.

The legislative campaign period will run from March 11 to April 1.