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KPU agrees to accept candidates from conflicted political parties

With only one week to go before the closing of registration for the December regional elections, the General Elections Commission (KPU) has agreed to accommodate political parties that are suffering leadership schisms

The Jakarta Post
Jakarta
Tue, July 14, 2015

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KPU agrees to accept candidates from conflicted political parties

W

ith only one week to go before the closing of registration for the December regional elections, the General Elections Commission (KPU) has agreed to accommodate political parties that are suffering leadership schisms.

The election committee has given a nod to a plan for rival leaders within a single political party to jointly name a candidate in a region, after previously insisting that only parties with a single official leader can name candidates for the 269 regional head elections in December.

The original requirement has kept two political parties that are currently involved in such internal conflicts '€” the Golkar Party and the United Development Party (PPP) '€” embroiled in legal battles to secure official recognition.

KPU member Ferry Kurnia Rizkiyansyah said that the change in the registration requirement will not come easily. He said that the election committee still requires a consensus among the government, the political party leaders and the House of Representatives to make the revisions.

'€œIf [they] can agree on one mechanism, we will run it, but if any of them disagrees, we will not change the candidacy regulation,'€ Ferry said on Monday as quoted by Antara news agency.

Ferry said the consensus is important since there may be differences in the coalitions parties form at the national and regional levels.

This means that one candidate who is approved by a political party at a national level may not earn the same approval at the regional level.

Ferry emphasized the importance for political parties to agree on joint committees of the political parties.

The KPU previously insisted that it would not accept candidates endorsed by a political party with dual leaders on the grounds that it would contradict the Regional Elections Law.

As the registration deadline nears, the election committee has felt pressure from Golkar, the country'€™s second largest political party, which is threatened with being left out of the elections because of the current infighting between two camps, one led by Agung Laksono and the other by Aburizal Bakrie.

Aburizal'€™s group, which controls the party'€™s House faction, initiated a probe against the KPU on the basis that the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) had found several misreported budget items in the committee'€™s financial report last year.

The BPK later launched a special audit on the KPU on its preparation for the December elections and ordered the committee to clarify the financial irregularities in its 2014 financial report.

On Monday, the BPK reported the results of the special audit that revealed glitches in the committee'€™s preparations, including 25 regions that have yet to prepare security and supervisory budgets and another 11 regions that haven'€™t allocated funds for the elections in their respective regional budgets.

The agency has also highlighted in the report that many regions still have poor scheduling for the elections, as well as the Constitutional Court that has yet to decide on a dispute settlement mechanism.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla is scheduled to meet with the KPU and political party leaders on Monday night to discuss the election preparations.

Prior to the meeting, Kalla expressed doubt that the meeting would reach any agreement.

'€œMany of the party chairmen are currently abroad,'€ he said.

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