Poll contestants to account for their candidates
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)