T

he House of Representatives has selected seven people to sit on the General Elections Commission (KPU) and five others for the Elections Monitoring Body (Bawaslu) ahead of the 2014 elections.

The selected figures are expected to carry out their duties for the next five years.

They were selected in a meeting on Thursday evening at the House’s Commission II, which oversees domestic governance, regional autonomy, state apparatuses and agrarian affairs.

The 53 House commission members gave the most votes to Sigit Pamungkas and Ida Budhiati (with 45 votes each), Arif Budiman (43 votes), Husni Kamil Manik (39 votes), Ferry Kurnia Rizkiyansyah and Hadar Nafis Gumay (35 votes each) and Juri Ardiantoro (34 votes), eliminating seven other nominees for the KPU.

Five of the seven selected members: Arief, Ferry, Juri, Husni and Ida, are former members of local election commissions and bring practical experience in arranging elections. They will be supported by Hadar and Sigit, both political observers.

On the same evening, the House also voted for Muhammad (45 votes), Nasrullah (36 votes), Endang Wihdatiningtyas (35 votes), Daniel Zuchron (24 votes), and Nelson Simanjuntak (24 votes), out of 10 nominees, to be in charge of the election monitoring body.

Muhammad, Nasrullah, and Endang have experience in setting up elections as they have been members of the local election commission and local Election Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu). Nelson was involved in a previous election monitoring body as an assistant, while Daniel is an electoral activist.

According to election activist Veri Junaidi from the organization Election and Democracy (Perludem), the composition of selected members is unbalanced as most lack legal backgrounds.

“Only two — Ida Budhiati and Endang Wihdatiningtyas — of all selected members of both KPU and Bawaslu, have strong legal backgrounds. Although other members have broad knowledge of elections and have experience in arranging polls, this is unfortunate because most problems occurring in past elections, in 2009 particularly, related to legal issues. We can prevent similar problems, such as overlapping regulations, from reoccurring if we have more people who know legal issues well,” Veri told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

The fact that only two of the total 12 selected members were women, Veri said, was another disappointment. “This is not in line with the election bill that mandates 30 percent women representation,” Veri added said.

Veri appreciated the selection result, but reminded selected members to prioritize national interests before political ones.

“It’s undeniable that all selected members are chosen through certain political lobbies. However, they must uphold honesty and integrity. They are challenged to put aside any political interests that might place the country at a disadvantage,” Veri said.

Sharing similar concerns, a coalition of 19 general election watchdogs has called on the selected members of the KPU and the Bawaslu to be independent.

“Forget the political involvement during the selection process and remember your responsibility to uphold independence and professionalism to prepare for the upcoming 2014 general election, which hopefully will be much better than previous ones,” the coalition said in a statement made available to the Post.

The coalition, whose members, among others, are the Center for Electoral Reform (CETRO), the Indonesia Budget Center (IBC), Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW), the Indonesia Parliamentary Center (IPC), Indonesian Parliament Watch (Formappi), as well as the Election and Democracy organization (Perludem), has invited the public to participate in monitoring the newly elected KPU and Bawaslu members in order to ensure their impartiality.