House speaker calls for end to KPK candidate debate

House of Representative Speaker Priyo Budi Santoso has urged House Commission III to end arguments over the number of candidates to allow to apply for the top Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) posts before the selection process begins.

“I suggest Commission III end their debate on the number of KPK deputy chairman candidates,” he said Wednesday as quoted by kompas.com.

Priyo said that determining the number of candidates was not the commission’s main task and that it should focus more on preparing the fit-and-proper tests for the candidates.

The commission’s views regarding the number of candidates are split in two. Members from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), Golkar and the People's Conscience Party (Hanura), say the government should have presented 10 names of candidate instead of the proposed eight.

They have based their argument on a law determining that the number of candidates must be double that of the positions available.