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actions at the House of Representatives rejected on Monday a proposed sanction for political parties that fail to endorse candidates in local elections.

In the draft revision of the 2015 Law on regional elections, the government has proposed article 40 paragraph 5 that stipulates a political party or a group of political parties that have gathered 20 to 25 percent of seats in a region'€™s legislative council, but fail to nominate any pair of candidates, should be barred from the next election.

Deputy chairman of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P)'€™s faction in the House, Arief Wibowo, said that the article could reduce the opportunity for single tickets, but at the cost of political parties.

'€œThe sanction is unacceptable. What'€™s the point of forcing political parties to nominate candidates when it will be only wasting money?'€, said the member of House Commission II overseeing home affairs, which handles the deliberation of the amendment.

Senior PDI-P politician and member of House Commission XI overseeing banking and finance Hendrawan Supratikno said that the government had, in good will, proposed the article that assures there would be more than one pair of candidates in a local election, but the sanction should be reconsidered.

Deputy chairman of the NasDem Party'€™s faction, Johnny G. Platte, said this sanction isn'€™t needed because all political parties have their own consideration to seek and nominate capable candidates.

'€œThe revision, in fact, should stipulate regulations that can reinforce political parties to create competent nominators,'€ Johnny said.

Hanura Party politician Dadang Rusdiana argued that the implementation of the sanction did not make sense. '€œIt will harm the public because political parties may arbitrarily propose candidates without considering their competence,'€ Dadang said.

The revision has yet to be deliberated as the House is currently having a two-week recess period and has not yet received presidential instruction to commence.

Beside emphasizing the sanction system, the House has also decided to tighten the screening of the candidates'€™ health record related to drug use, where the details of the mechanism will be stipulated in the General Election Commission'€™s (KPU) regulations.

Therefore, the KPU is set to cooperate with the Indonesian Doctors Association (IDI) and the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) in conducting medical test for candidates.

Speaking after a meeting with the IDI and BNN, KPU chairman Husni Kamil Manik said that the decision to overhaul the medical test scheme would be added to the election law or stipulated in the KPU'€™s regulations.

'€œAll the concepts we have put together about the medical test mechanism cannot be implemented if they are not regulated by specific legal products. Hence, a new regulation is urgently needed,'€ Husni said, adding that the KPU could not allocate a budget for the new test scheme if it is not legally set in stone.

IDI chairman Daeng Muhammad Faqih said that the current medical test mechanism was not enough to screen every candidates'€™ health record because it does not include hair tests.

'€œThe current mechanism only comprises a urine test and a blood test. These two tests can'€™t comprehensively detect one'€™s narcotics-use record. One could easily outsmart the screening by ceasing consumption five days prior to the test,'€ Daeng said. (mos)