Poll contestants to account for their candidates
JAKARTA (JP): The political organizations contesting the May 29 election are to account for their legislative candidates before the General Elections Institute today.
Each of the contestants, Golkar, the United Development Party (PPP) and the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI), will be represented by their secretaries general.
Senior officials of the three organizations expressed their optimism yesterday that there would not be any significant changes to the lists.
The legislative candidate lists, especially Golkar's, have been widely branded as "nepotistic". Golkar is fielding many people who have close links to its senior officials and government ministers.
General Elections Institute Chairman Moch. Yogie S.M. said he had received 310 letters about the prospective House of Representatives members.
The institute sought public comments on the legislative candidates between Dec. 20 last year and Feb. 26.
"Only 150 of the letters contained criticisms and the remaining 160 aired support," said Yogie, who is also the minister of home affairs.
The dominant Golkar received the most criticism with 95 letters, followed by the PDI with 29 and the PPP with 26.
Yogie declined to reveal what the objections were, saying that making them public would be "unethical".
He said the institute would announce the final list of legislative candidates on March 7. PPP, PDI and Golkar will then sign the list.
The three political contestants said yesterday the public complaints would not influence the basic structure of their candidates lists.
No change
"It is likely that there will be no change in our list of legislative candidates. The possibility (of change) is very slight," Golkar deputy chairman Abdul Gafur said.
Gafur said that only eight of the 95 letters of complaint concerning Golkar's legislative candidates deserved "serious discussion".
The eight legislative candidates allegedly breached Golkar's basic principles of loyalty, dedication and morality, but none of their loyalty to the state ideology Pancasila has been questioned.
The government-backed PDI leadership looks certain to pass the party's provisional roster as well.
Secretary-General Buttu R. Hutapea said the party leadership concluded that none of the 29 letters of objection would affect the structure of the provisional list.
"We have found that none of the letters deal with matters of substance such as criminal conduct or ideological violations," he said.
PPP Secretary-General Tosari Wijaya said three names would definitely be dropped from the party's candidates list and a further nominee could well join the outgoing pack for ideological reasons.
The Moslem-oriented party lost two candidates recently when Anwar Nurris of East Java and Saiful Ahmad Haulussy of Maluku died. Another nominee, Yudho Paripurno of Yogyakarta, withdrew to concentrate on other business.
"I guess only one candidate will fail to clear the ideological hurdle," Tosari said. He refused to identify the name of the candidate, saying that he would give a detailed explanation at today's meeting.
Golkar submitted an 829-strong list of provisional legislative candidates on Jan. 20, while the PPP submitted 720 candidates and the PDI 744. (imn/amd)