Poll body postpones candidates announcement

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Jakarta Provincial Elections Commission (KPUD) on Tuesday unexpectedly called off its scheduled announcement of the results of its verification of eligible legislative candidates.

KPUD members give differing explanations for the delay and when the announcement would eventually be made.

Commission chairman Muhamad Taufik said more time was needed to examine all the documents submitted by the 1,578 legislative candidates. The last documents were only filed late on Monday.

Taufik said he would announce the results on Wednesday, but another KPUD member, Hamdan Rasyid, said the results would not be made public until Jan. 27.

Although Taufik insisted that all the candidates had submitted the required documents, his statement was at odds by comments made by Hamdan.

"We are still waiting for a number of documents to be submitted by the candidates, particularly their medical certificates," Hamdan told The Jakarta Post at 5 p.m. on Tuesday.

He added the candidates had only submitted doctors' certificates based on cursory examinations rather than comprehensive checkups.

Every legislative candidate is required to submit, among other things, a school diploma, medical certificate, asset declaration, a letter from his party confirming his candidacy and letters confirming his place of residence.

On Monday, the KPUD announced that 39 candidates had dropped out of or had been disqualified from the race for a variety of reasons, including the submission of fake school diplomas, a lack of high school diplomas, voluntary withdrawal of their candidacies, and the submission of fake certificates of good conduct from the district court.