KPU in breach of own regulation

Erwida Maulia ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Tue, 10/07/2008 10:04 AM  |  National

The General Elections Commission (KPU) has violated its own regulation and schedule by not publicizing a final list of legislative candidates to the media, the General Elections Supervisory Board (Bawaslu) says.

Bawaslu member Wahidah Syuaib told The Jakarta Post in Jakarta on Monday that the KPU had violated KPU regulation No. 20, which states the list must be made available to the public for criticism over a 10-day period running from Sep. 26 to Oct. 9.

The 2008 Law on Legislative Elections specifies that one daily newspaper and one national TV station may publish the final list.

Republika national daily and state television channel TVRI have won the bids to publish the unreleased list.

The KPU has published a temporary list of candidates on its official website www.kpu.go.id and has posted the same list in its Jakarta office.

"We will immediately send a warning letter to the KPU in regard to this violation, and we will report it to the KPU," Wahidah said, citing the irony that breaches of the legislative election law must reported to the KPU.

She said the delay may be due to a number of issues, including the late submission of candidate names by various parties as well as a prolonged bidding process for the rights to publish the final list.

"There is also a budgetary issue in some regions. But, overall, what we see is a planning problem within the KPU," Wahidah said.

The period in which the public may criticize the list must remain 10 days regardless of when the KPU publishes the final list, she said.

Bawaslu sent the KPU a warning after it had received a report from the Civic Circle for Indonesia (Lima) confirming the KPU had violated its own article.

"There are only four days left for the public to criticize the list. What's the problem with the KPU? This is not its first violation of the elections regulations. We want Bawaslu to investigate the case and find the real cause of the problem," Lima's executive director Ray Rangkuti told the Post.

He said he would bring the case to the House of Representatives Commission II overseeing national affairs, state apparatus and regional autonomy if Bawaslu failed to take firm action against the KPU.

The KPU announced last month that 11,868 legislative nominees had passed the first phase of the registration process to contest next year's elections, and that 2,152 had failed.

The legislative elections will be held on Apr. 9, 2009, with some 38 political parties contesting 560 House seats.

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