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span class="caption" style="width: 398px;">Upbeat: Independent candidates hoping to become Jakarta’s next governorand deputy governor, Faisal Basri (left) and Biem Benjamin, chat during afund-raising ceremony for their campaign at the Sahid Jaya Hotel in Jakartaon Tuesday. The Jakarta General Elections Commission (KPUD) opensregistration for independent candidates today. JP/Wendra AjistyatamaTwo pairs of independent candidates for the upcoming Jakarta gubernatorial election have claimed to have garnered enough support from residents to be considered eligible to run for the city’s top posts.

The Jakarta General Elections Commission (KPUD), which is scheduled to open registration for independent governor hopefuls today (Wednesday), said on Tuesday that it would deploy a total of 100 officials in 267 subdistricts to verify the claims.

The commission made clear that it would disqualify support where people have given their signatures and copies of their identification cards for two separate candidates.

KPUD chairman Juri Ardiantoro said double support would not count for either candidate, which meant it was possible that a few independent hopefuls might lose some support after the verification process, which will take place from Feb. 13 to Feb. 17.

In order to be able to participate in the election, independent candidates are required to gather the signatures and copies of ID cards from 4 percent of Jakarta residents, or 407,340 people in the capital.

Juri said the candidates would be given one more week after the verification process to complete their minimum-support quota. “We will first check the list, whether they hand in the same number of signatures and copies as they report, before verifying the documents in respective subdistricts,” he said.

The candidates’ respective campaign team representatives will be invited to witness the document verification process.

Jakarta will hold its second direct election on July 11, which for the first time will allow candidates without political party support to run. Independents economist Faisal Basri and entrepreneur Biem Benjamin stated that they were optimistic about their chances of winning the election, saying their camp had collected signatures and IDs from a total of more than 540,000 citizens across the capital.

Biem, however, said his team had filed an objection to the double-support disqualification. “This regulation can be manipulated by parties who do not want us to be able to run in the election,” he told The Jakarta Post. He added, however, that he and his partner would abide by the regulation.

The Faisal—Biem camp plans to submit their registration to the KPUD on Wednesday, but also plans to keep collecting signatures and ID card copies, in the hopes of obtaining more than 600,000.

Another independent candidate pairing, retired Rear Marshal Prayitno Ramelan and businessman Teddy Suratmadji, said they were also optimistic about their registration, saying they have collected 500,000 signatures and ID copies.

Prayitno said separately on Tuesday that his camp was planning to submit the documents on Friday.

In the past, independent tickets were dismissed as having no chance in local elections, which are dominated by wealthy and powerful political parties.