PKB mulls suing KPU over health requirement

A. Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The National Awakening Party (PKB) is considering taking legal action against the General Elections Commission (KPU) should the commission place a sight requirement on presidential and vice presidential candidates.

"We cannot comment further as we have not seen it (the health requirements for presidential and vice presidential candidates). We will watch and study any requirement before taking legal measures," PKB leader Alwi Shihab said on Wednesday.

The PKB, which has so far garnered over 12 percent of the vote in the provisional tally of the April 5 legislative election, has said that it will nominate former president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid for the country's first ever direct presidential election on July 5.

Gus Dur, who was impeached in July 2001, is nearly blind, which would prevent him from meeting the KPU's health requirements for presidential and vice presidential candidates.

Alwi said that requiring candidates to have at least 50 percent of their sight, as has been proposed, would violate Law No. 23/2003 on presidential elections.

He stressed that the House of Representatives did not raise concerns over Gus Dur's health last year when they endorsed the law, which requires only that presidential and vice presidential candidates by physically and mentally sound.

The PKB leader also raised the possibility of violations should the KPU and the Indonesian Medical Doctors Association (IDI) have a different interpretation of the law.

"It would be a controversial decision if they applied the (sight) requirement," he said, adding that the PKB would still nominate Gus Dur as its candidate in the upcoming presidential election.

The KPU and the IDI will sign a memorandum of understanding on Thursday on health examinations for presidential and vice presidential candidates. The commission will also approve the health requirements for presidential and vice presidential candidates drafted by the medical association.

Many observers believe the poor health of Gus Dur, who has suffered two mild strokes, was one of the main reason his almost two-year presidency was largely ineffectual.

Alwi said that should Gus Dur be prevented from contesting the presidential election because of his health, the party would give him the authority to select his replacement candidate.