T

he General Elections Commission (KPU) plans to offer additional days to encourage more candidates to sign up, but since political parties are reluctant to nominate more candidates, uncontested polls are expected in several regions.

The KPU reported on Sunday that there were 81 regions in Indonesia that would potentially have only one candidate, since others failed the verification process.

'€œ[Eighty-one regions] only have two candidates and during the verification process the KPU may disqualify one of the candidates,'€ Hadar told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

Over the weekend, Denpasar became an uncontested region, since only one candidates was confirmed by the KPU as qualified to run.

Regions with only one candidate need one more to register by Aug. 11, otherwise they risk having the election delayed until 2017.

The government prepared a government regulation in lieu of law (Perppu) to prevent the delay, but President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo declined to move the regulation forward, saying that there was no state of emergency if the elections go uncontested.

Jokowi said Saturday that the government would make a decision regarding the elections after the extension period was over.

'€œThe registration is still extended until Tuesday,'€ Jokowi said on Saturday as quoted by the Antara news agency.

KPU commissioner Sigit Pamungkas said that once the extended registration was over, whether or not there were still regions with single candidates, the KPU and government should consider issuing the Perppu.

'€œThis is not only resolving the coming regional elections, but also for future elections,'€ Sigit told the Post.

The Indonesian Parliament Watch (Formappi) said that some regions had only one candidate because incumbents running the regions were too strong.

'€œThey are afraid that the incumbent may use state facilities for campaigning,'€ the Formappi chairman Sebastian Salang said on Saturday.

Sebastian pointed out that the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) should keep their eyes on incumbents that might use state facilities during the campaign period.

He added that the elite of certain political parties also played a role in forcing some regions to only have one candidate.

'€œThe political parties tend to support the incumbent that is likely to be elected,'€ he said.

He explained further that the political parties should not merely rely on survey results as the basis in determining their candidates but should also consider those who were competent.

Several parties have shown a reluctance to get candidates to register during the extended period for signing up.

'€œIf we force it and go ahead with a '€˜puppet candidate'€™, what will come of [the election]?'€ said Gerindra Party deputy chairman Fadli Zon.

But he said that he would leave the decision about candidate endorsement to regional party executives.

NasDem Party executive Enggartiasto Lukita said that his party would refuse to endorse candidates just for the sake of filling empty slots.

'€œWe are talking about quality and capability and we don'€™t want to endorse fake candidates,'€ he said.

Enggartiasto said his party would be consistent with the quality of candidates that the party had been endorsing in the past.

Last week the KPU confirmed that seven regions '€” Tasikmalaya, Blitar, Pacitan and Surabaya, Mataram, Samarinda and Timor Tengah Utara '€” only had one candidate for the upcoming elections. (ind)