Poll body postpones candidates announcement

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.