TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Checks on supporters of independent candidates troublesome: Ahok
Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama has expressed concern over the factual verification of supporters stipulated in the 2016 law on regional elections, which may complicate his independent bid for Jakarta’s 2017 gubernatorial election.
Change Size
Jakartans attend a Teman Ahok (Friends of Ahok) event in South Jakarta on May. 29. The volunteer support group held a two-day event to help raise campaign funds and collect photocopies of residents' identity cards to support Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama's bid as an independent candidate in the 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial election. (Antara/Reno Esnir)
Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama has expressed concern over the factual verification of supporters stipulated in the 2016 law on regional elections, which may complicate his independent bid for Jakarta’s 2017 gubernatorial election.
The law, passed on June 2, requires that polling committees (PPS) of the General Election Commission (KPU) conduct one by one factual checks on supporters of independent candidates to make sure the identity card photocopies submitted by supporters are valid. Should PPS officials fail to meet the supporters at their homes, the supporters must come to the PPS office within three days of the verification process.
The regulation raises questions for Ahok, who has announced his intention to run as an independent candidate in next year's election.
"It will be troublesome for the supporters. If the officers come to their house while they are at work, they need to come to the PPS office within three days. Is the office open 24 hours?" he asked journalists at City Hall on Monday.
He said he feared that the PPS office would open only during working hours and that his supporters would be reluctant to take a day off work.
If the PPS cannot verify the authenticity of an identity card, that photocopy will not count as a sign of support. The KPU rules demand that independent candidates demonstrate that they are backed by at least 7.5 percent of the total voters from the previous election, by providing photocopies of supporters’ ID cards. Ahok needs to rally at least 532,000 supporters to run as an independent candidate in Jakarta.
Teman Ahok (Friends of Ahok), a group of volunteers backing Ahok’s candidacy, had so far gathered 940,000 Jakarta IDs to be submitted to the KPU for verification. Ahok aims to collect at least 1 million IDs to run as an independent candidate in a pairing with Jakarta civil servant Heru Budi Hartono.
The KPU must conduct two stages of verification of independent candidates. The first one is done by the Jakarta KPU with assistance from the Subdistrict Election Committee (PPK). The second stage is the factual verification, in which the KPU will check supporters directly, one by one.
The KPU itself has raised questions over the three-day verification process.
"It is hard to comprehend [how the three-day verification process will be conducted]. The election organizers must be given enough space. Most importantly, all the factual verifications must be completed within 14 days," KPU commissioner Hadar Nafis Gumay said, as quoted by kompas.com on Monday. (rin)
