J

akarta: Election watchdogs have called on the House of Representatives to be transparent during the selection process for members of the General Elections Commission (KPU) and the General Elections Monitoring Body (Bawaslu), scheduled from Monday to Thursday.

“The interview process must be open and transparent so the public can see the quality of each candidate,” Very Junaidi from the organization Election and Democracy (Perludem) told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

The House of Representatives’ Commission II overseeing bureaucracy reform, elections and regional autonomy will elect seven KPU members from the existing list of 14 nominees, and five Bawaslu members from 10 nominees.

Veri said that on Monday, the House would screen seven candidates for KPU, then seven more on Tuesday. Seven nominees for Bawaslu would be screened on Wednesday and last three nominees would be screened on Thursday.

The House, he added, would schedule an hour-long interview with each nominee.

Among the nominees were several election activists including Hadar Nafiz Gumay of the Center for Electoral Reform (CETRO), who applied to be a KPU commissioner, and law analyst Refly Harun, who applied to be a Bawaslu member.

“There also one nominee who has strong political affiliations. I won’t mention her name, but will say that she is a professor whose husband is a politician from the Republika Nusantara [Republican] Party,” Veri said.