T

he Democratic Party has made a plea to the General Elections Commission (KPU) to allow it to bypass submitting a list of legislative candidates for the 2014 election without authorization from the party’s chairman.

The ruling party, which is currently without a leader following the decision of Anas Urbaningrum to quit, claimed last month that it was in a difficult situation given the 2012 law on legislative elections, which stipulates that parties’ legislative candidates lists for 2014 must be signed by a legitimate party leader.

“The KPU has the power to issue regulations on election management. So, the commission can issue a regulation on how to deal with a certain situation [like what the Democratic Party currently faces]. But I don’t want to give advice or even dictate to the KPU,” Democratic Party patron and Law and Human Rights Minister Amir Syamsuddin said on Sunday.

Amir said the regulation would be crucial in the future as leadership problems could affect other parties.

He proposed that the Democrats be given some leeway in the submission of the legislative candidates list.

“It would be great if the party’s supreme assembly was allowed to endorse the list,” Amir said.

The KPU has set an April 15 deadline for political parties to submit provisional lists of their legislative candidates. Many have suggested that the Democrats must hold an extraordinary congress to elect a new chairman to approve the party’s list.

Executives of the party have argued that there was not enough time to set up such a congress, as it would involve lengthy preparation and consolidation of the party structure down to local level.

Analysts, however, have suggested that Yudhoyono and his supporters were concerned that an extraordinary congress — if held today — could see one of Anas’ supporters elected as chairman.

Despite facing graft charges, Anas is believed to enjoy massive support from party members at local level.

“Yudhoyono does not want to see his party being led by somebody he does not want, like what happened in 2010 when Anas was democratically elected,” Pol-Tracking Institute executive director Hanta Yuda said.

Hanta said that the KPU must not make an exception for the Democrats, despite the dire situation the party faced.

“The KPU works for all political parties and therefore must not give special treatment to one party,” Hanta said.

He added that the Democratic Party still had ample time to prepare a congress.

“There is still more than one month for the Democrats to organize an extraordinary congress, so, its request to the KPU is unacceptable,” he added.

The Democratic Party had begun the process of coming up with a legislative list long before Anas stepped down.

Many also speculate that Anas’ departure stalled the process, with his opponents within the party wanting to restart it from the beginning.

Hayono Isman, another party patron, said that his party could get around the election law.

“The role of the chairman to sign the preliminary list can be given to the deputy chairman and the secretary-general,” he said.