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number of aspiring candidates for the upcoming simultaneous local elections have been forced to drop their candidacies after local election organizers found them ineligible to run in the elections due to health or administrative reasons.

In Sigi regency, Central Sulawesi, incumbent Regent Aswadin Randalembah must retract his reelection bid after the local General Elections Commission (KPUD) deemed him physically unfit, referring to the results of a health screening conducted by a team of doctors from the Indonesian Doctors Association (IDI).

Aswadin, who was endorsed by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the country'€™s largest party, and the Crescent Star Party (PBB), was reported to have suffered from a stroke and heart disease. During the compulsory health screening, he fell down after undergoing a treadmill test for two minutes and was not able to resume the test.

In response to the KPUD'€™s decision to disqualify Aswadin, the PDI-P and the PBB will nominate Aswadin'€™s running mate, M. Agus Lamakarat, who serves as the regency'€™s Agricultural Agency head, as the coalition'€™s new regent candidate. Aswadin'€™s wife, Wardah Randalembah, meanwhile, has been nominated as Agus'€™s running mate.

'€œA recent plenary meeting jointly held by the PDI-P and PBB has agreed to nominate Wardah Randalembah as a replacement for her husband in the upcoming election. This decision is final,'€ said PDI-P'€™s deputy Central Sulawesi chapter chief, Ashar Yahya on Saturday.

Data from the General Elections Commission (KPU) showed more than 800 candidate pairs had registered to contest the upcoming elections, which will be held in nine provinces and 260 regencies and municipalities, by the time candidate registration closed on Aug. 3.

In Sigi, for example, five candidate pairs, including the Agus-Wardah ticket, have registered their candidacies with the local KPUD.

Local election organizers will verify the supporting documents submitted by the aspiring candidates until next week. They will later announce the final list of eligible candidate pairs on Aug. 24.

 According to Article 7 of the 2015 Regional Elections (Pilkada) Law, a person must meet a number of conditions to be eligible to run as a regional head or deputy regional head candidate. He or she, for example, must be a high school graduate, be physically and mentally fit, and possess a tax identification number (NPWP).

A candidate pair must also secure endorsement from a political party or a coalition of political parties that controls at least 20 percent of seats in the Regional Legislative Council (DPRD), or garner at least 25 percent of total votes in a respective region, to be eligible to run in a local election.

Independent candidates, meanwhile, are required to gather the signatures and copies of ID cards from between 6.5 percent and 10 percent of locals to validate their nomination.

In Bali, a candidate pair in the Denpasar mayoral election and another pair in the Jembrana regional election have also dropped out of the race.

Golkar Party politician I Ketut Suwandhi, who was nominated as a Denpasar mayoral candidate by several political parties under the banner of the Bali Mandara Coalition, on Friday, the last day for aspiring candidates to submit all supporting documents for registration, left his registration file at the Denpasar KPUD incomplete.

Suwandhi told the Post he retracted his candidacy due to family issues. '€œMy family does not want me to run as a mayoral candidate,'€ he said.

Many local politicians said earlier it was unlikely for them to challenge the reelection bid of incumbent Denpasar Mayor Ida Bagus Rai Dharmawijaya Mantra, endorsed by the PDI-P, due to the mayor'€™s popularity.

Suwandhi'€™s resignation has left Rai and running mate I Gusti Ngurah Jayanegara as the only candidate pair registered with the Denpasar KPUD. Such a situation will also likely put the Denpasar mayoral election on hold until 2017, as the existing regulation stipulates that a regional head election can only be carried out if there are at least two candidate pairs.

Meanwhile, in Jembrana, the local KPUD announced on Saturday the Wirawan-Made Suardana pair '€“ endorsed by Golkar, the Gerindra Party and the Democratic Party '€“ had failed to complete several administrative requirements and had been ousted from the election.

The KPUD'€™s decision to disqualify the pair, however, does not disrupt the entire election, as there are still two candidate pairs registered with the KPUD.