3 independent hopefuls vie for governor post

Two pairs of independent hopefuls submitted supporters’ signatures and ID card photocopies to the Jakarta General Elections Commission (KPUD) on Sunday to register for the upcoming regional election, scheduled to be held on July 11.

This brings the total of independent hopefuls looking to vie for Jakarta’s top position to three pairs, after Faisal Basri and Biem Benjamin submitted their documents on Saturday. Sunday was the last day for independent candidates to submit the documents.

Teammates Rear Marshal (ret.) Prayitno Ramelan and businessman Teddy Suratmadji arrived at the commission’s document collection office at the National Library on Jl. Medan Merdeka Selatan, Central Jakarta, at around 10:30 a.m. Sunday.

They were accompanied by a small group of Betawi entertainers, who exchanged pantun (poetic quatrains) and staged a pencak silat demonstration in front of the office.

Prayitno and Teddy then submitted the documents to KPUD head Juri Ardiantoro. “We have collected 450,000 signatures and ID card photocopies and submit them all today,” Prayitno said.

“Independent [leaders] are the hope of Jakarta. We won’t be chained by the interests of political parties and we will only answer to the people,” he added.

Another pair of hopefuls, Maj. Gen. (ret.) Hendardji Soepandji and politician Ahmad Riza Patria, followed suit at 12:30 p.m., bringing with them two giant ondel-ondel effigies, a traditional music group and about 2,000 supporters.

The pair delivered 528,525 signatures and ID card photocopies. “I seek to prioritize the youth and political regeneration in developing Jakarta. This is why my deputy governor candidate is less than 50 years old,” Hendardji told reporters.

Ahmad, the son of Indonesian Ulama Council (MUI) chairman Amidhan and executive at the Greater Indonesian Movement Party, is 42.

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

In his speech upon receiving the Prayitno-Teddy ticket’s required documents, Juri said that the commission “would do whatever it takes to make the upcoming regional election a huge success”.

 The poll body will begin a two-week long verification process on Monday, with officials deployed to check the signatures and the ID copies with their respective owners in all 267 subdistricts in the city.

The Faisal-Biem ticket’s campaign team reportedly submitted a written complaint to the commission on Saturday, objecting to the requirement that all submitted ID card copies must still be valid by Feb. 13. They said it would be difficult for the team to replace the expired ID cards, especially with the electronic ID system now in place.

Juri said the KPUD had no authority to pass any regulation and that all underlying registration guidelines were passed by the national general elections commission. (mim)