Political Parties Urged to Replace Problematic Candidates
Political parties are urged to replace legislative candidates who were formerly convicted for corruption, drug crimes and child sexual abuse. The KPU said it was unfortunate that some political parties were still nominating former convicts, even thought they had signed an “integrity pact”.
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Kompas/Lasti Kurnia
The atmosphere of the opening of a plenary session of the House of Representatives at Nusantara II Building at the Parliament Complex, Jakarta, Thursday (18/5/2017).
JAKARTA, KOMPAS – Political parties are urged to replace legislative candidates who were formerly convicted for corruption, drug crimes and child sexual abuse. The General Elections Commission (KPU) said it was unfortunate that some political parties were still nominating former convicts, even thought they had signed an “integrity pact”.
The former corruption convicts include Golkar Party Aceh executive TM Nurlif, Golkar Central Java executive Iqbal Wibisono and Gerindra’s Jakarta executive M Taufik (Kompas, 19/7/2018). Their nomination violates the integrity statement on adhering to nomination requirements.
The integrity pact includes a commitment from political parties not to nominate former convicts of corruption, drug crimes and child sexual abuse. Violations of the integrity pact will lead to the nominated figures being declared ineligible. According to Article 18 of KPU Regulation (PKPU) No. 20/2018 on nominating legislative candidates, if a nominated figure is found to violate the integrity pact, either during the verification process or through public reports, the political party may replace the candidate.
“Everyone should respect the PKPU, which has been enacted. We respect efforts to file judicial reviews [on the regulation] with the Supreme Court [MA]. However, before the MA makes any subsequent rulings on the issue, the PKPU No. 20/2018 prevails,” KPU member Wahyu Setiawan said in Jakarta on Thursday (19/7).
Wahyu said that if the KPU found candidates that did not fulfill the requirements in the integrity pact during its verification process, the KPU would declare them ineligible and inform the party leadership during the announcement of verification results on July 19-21. If the parties did not replace the candidates in the revision period, the KPU will still drop the ineligible candidates from its draft candidacy list.
Wahyu said that he not received a report on the exact number of nominated candidates with a history of corruption.
Kompas/Wisnu Widiantoro
A large banner for the 2018 concurrent regional elections is displayed at the General Election Commission (KPU) building in Jakarta on Saturday (17/6/2018).
Multiple interpretations
Political science lecturer Ferry Daud Liando at Manado’s Sam Ratulangi University said that multiple interpretations of PKPU No. 20/2018 existed in the regions. Certain regional elections commissions (KPUD) immediately rejected all candidates with a history of the three crimes. However, other KPUDs still accepted such candidates.
Democratic Party secretary-general Hinca Panjaitan said the party would not deliberately nominate legislative candidates with a history of corruption, drug crimes or child sexual abuse.
The party’s Jambi branch reportedly nominated a former corruption convict as legislative candidate. Hinca said the party would not file a dispute with the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) if the KPU decided to declare that candidate ineligible.
Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) executive board chairman Trimedya Panjaitan said the party would also refrain from filing a dispute with Bawaslu if the KPU declared some of its candidates ineligible for not fulfilling the requirements in the integrity pact.
Gerindra Party deputy chair Sufmi Dasco Ahmad said that the House of Representatives, the government and the KPU agreed in a recent consultation meeting that parties could still nominate former corruption convicts as legislative candidates while awaiting the MA to rule on the PKPU’s judicial review. Gerindra had also spoken to the Bawaslu on the matter.
With this in consideration, Gerindra would still nominate M Taufik as a candidate for the Jakarta City Council. However, if the MA ruled in favor of the PKPU, Gerindra would abide by the ruling.
