Presidential candidacy rule opposed

Presidential candidacy rule opposed

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Political experts and politicians have expressed disagreement
with the presidential elections bill, which stipulates that only
political parties winning at least 20 percent of the seats in the
House of Representatives are allowed to nominate their own
presidential and vice presidential candidates.

Several of the experts suggested that all political parties
contesting the legislative election should have the right to also
contest the presidential election.

Maswadi Rauf, a political expert from the University of
Indonesia, criticized the restriction as undemocratic, saying:
"Such a legal limitation is excessive."

According to Maswadi, all political parties contesting the
general election should have the political right to nominate
their own presidential and vice presidential candidates.

"To be democratic, if we agree with, let's say, 100 political
parties contesting the general election, we should be consistent
and accept the presence of 100 candidates contesting the next
presidential election," he said in a discussion on the bill here
on Friday.

Abdillah Toha, deputy chairman of the National Mandate Party
(PAN), and Zaenal Arifin, a legislator from the Indonesian
Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) concurred, saying
there should be further discussions to soften the limitations on
presidential candidates.

The bill was prepared by the Ministry of Home Affairs but its
substance, including the presidential candidacy requirements, has
won the political support of the PDI Perjuangan and Golkar Party,
the two major factions in the legislature.

PAN completely opposes Article 5 of the bill on restrictions
on presidential candidates, saying it was undemocratic.

Zaenal Arifin a member of the House special committee reading
the bill, and Firman Djaya Daely, deputy secretary of the PDI
Perjuangan faction in the House, conceded that the legal
requirements restricting presidential candidates was unfair and
said their factions were ready to delete the offending sections
during the bill's deliberation.

Maswadi emphasized that the requirements were not compatible
with the amended 1945 Constitution.

Article 6 A (2) of the Constitution provides that pairs of
presidential and vice presidential candidates are nominated by
the political parties or coalitions of political parties, so that
there were no legal restrictions provided for in the national
charter.

Maswadi, Abdillah and Zaenal suggested that the quota should
be lowered to give equal chances to political parties to nominate
their candidates.

Furthermore, Zaenal said less draconian restrictions would
likely be necessary, but added that the smaller political parties
could form coalitions to contest the presidential election.

"Coalitions based on similar political platforms would create
a strong government," he added.

The coordinator of the Independent Committee for Electoral
Monitoring (KIPP), Ray Rangkuti, agreed that more relaxed
requirements for presidential candidates were needed, and said
that coalitions of political parties based on similar platforms
would create stronger government.

"If a coalition is based on a plan to secure executive seats,
it tends to ignore the differences in the parties' political
platforms. Thus, the coalition won't be strong," Rangkuti added.

The House special committee is scheduled to resume the
deliberation of the bill on Monday despite the ongoing recess,
when the committee will hear the government's stance on the bill.