T

he House Of Representatives is set to allow former convicts to run in local elections through an amendment to the Regional Elections (Pilkada) Law.

House Commission II chairman Rambe Kamarulzaman said former convicts should be permitted to contest regional elections as long as they complied with a regulation that obligated them to publicly announce their criminal records.

'€œTheir right has to be restored on the condition that they show remorse and promise to not repeat the crimes they'€™ve committed in their public announcement,'€ the Golkar Party politician told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

The government has submitted an amendment to the Pilkada Law. Home Minister Tjahjo Kumolo conveyed on Monday to Commission II overseeing home affairs several key points in the revision proposal, including a provision that would allow former convicts to run in elections without serving a five-year probation period.

The Constitutional Court approved the provision in a judicial review of the law in July.

The court ruling, which ordered ex-convicts and suspects to publicly announce their criminal history is adapted in Article 7 of the draft bill, a copy of which was recently obtained by the Post.

Commission II deputy chairman Ahmad Riza Patria said that apart from ex-convicts, he also hoped suspects would be given the right to run in regional elections.

'€œAs he or she has not been convicted, why should we restrict them from taking part in an election, as stipulated in our Constitution?'€ said the Gerindra Party politician on Tuesday.

Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem) executive director Titi Anggraini criticized the ruling for not mentioning the full definition of the term '€œconvict'€.

'€œThe new law should stipulate the complete definition of '€˜convict'€™, is it a person who is on parole or have they been fully freed by a correctional institution?'€ she said.

Several ex-convicts and suspects, most of them implicated in graft cases, ran and won elections in their respective areas during the simultaneous regional elections in December.

In a bid to contest the Semarang mayoral election, former mayor Soemarmo announced in a local newspaper his corruption conviction, which had forced him to relinquish his mayoral post in 2012 to serve 18 months in prison, as a prerequisite stipulated in the Constitutional Court ruling.

However, Soemarmo, who ran on a ticket with Zuber Safawi, lost to candidate pair Hendrar Prihadi and Hevearita Gunaryanti, nominated by the Indonesian Democratic Party Of Struggle (PDI-P), Democratic Party and NasDem Party.

Marten Luther Dira Tome won the election in Sabu Raijua regency, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), despite the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) having named him a suspect in a case surrounding the misappropriation of Rp 59 billion in education funds at the NTT Education and Culture Agency in 2007.

In Natuna, Riau Islands, candidate pair Hamid Rizal and Ngesti Yuni Suprapti, nominated by Golkar, Gerindra and the National Mandate Party (PAN), won the local election. In 2010, the Jakarta Corruption Court sentenced Hamid to three years in prison in a graft case concerning oil and gas profits in 2004, which caused around Rp 77 billion (US$5.5 million) in state losses. (mos)
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