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survey conducted by a human rights watchdog, the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), has found that more than 100 of newly sworn-in House of Representatives members have dubious track records.

Data compiled by Kontras shows that 63 lawmakers have been subjected to questioning as witnesses in various graft cases, 16 of whom were named graft suspects and five of whom were tried for graft.

'€œNot only that, nine lawmakers were also implicated in several human rights cases, 19 in criminal cases and 38 violated election regulations,'€ Chrisbiantoro, Kontras deputy coordinator, announced at a press conference at the Kontras office in Menteng, Central Jakarta.

Chrisbiantoro added that the high number of lawmakers with questionable track records was an indication that political parties had done a poor job in picking legislative candidates.

'€œThe lack of information that voters had about candidates and widespread vote-buying also played a significant role in easing the lawmaker'€™s way into the House,'€ He said.

The survey also included research on a number of high-profile lawmakers, such as Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) lawmaker Wayan Koster; Golkar lawmaker Setya Novanto; Desmond Mahesa from the Gerindra Party; and Edhie '€œIbas'€ Baskoro Yudhoyono from the Democratic Party.

Koster has been questioned by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in relation to several graft cases, including in the university laboratory procurement case, which put former Democratic Party Angelina Sondakh behind bars. The KPK slapped a travel ban on Koster back in 2012, and he remains a witness in the case.

Ibas has been mentioned in several graft cases, with the latest accusation coming from graft convict and former Democratic Party treasurer Muhammad Nazaruddin, who recently said Ibas had abused his father'€™s name to rig government projects worth hundreds of billions of rupiah. The KPK, however, has always claimed that it was unnecessary to summon the President'€™s son for questioning.

Meanwhile, newly elected House Speaker Setya has been implicated in a number of graft cases.

The KPK has questioned Setya several times in connection to the Riau National Games (PON) graft case in which he has been accused of accepting Rp 9 billion (US$737,330) in kickbacks.

Commenting on the Kontras findings, Setya said people should always uphold the presumption of innocence and emphasized that he believed that law enforcement agencies would do their jobs.

'€œWe should not accuse anyone without having enough evidence, otherwise we could be accused of defamation and he or she could be arrested for making such a baseless accusation,'€ Setya told reporters at the House.

Agus Hermanto, a House deputy speaker from the Democratic Party, also played down the accusation and said the Kontras data was no more than assumption. (idb)