F

aith in Indonesian democracy could be further undermined by a House of Representatives plan to allow crooked politicians run in local elections, analysts have warned.

The House has agreed to propose a regulation (PKPU) that will allow candidates convicted of minor crimes and serving probation to run in the upcoming concurrent regional elections in February.

It is feared the planned regulation will deal another blow to the existing electoral system, which already allows crime suspects and ex-convicts to run for membership of legislatures or as regional heads.

After weeks of debate, a meeting involving the House, the General Elections Commission (KPU), Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) and the government, came to the unexpected conclusion to permit convicts on probation for minor crimes to run in the elections. The regulation does not include those who have been sentenced to jail terms.

Most factions at the House, with the Golkar Party as the most outspoken in favor, argued that convicts on probation had committed minor offenses or had done so inadvertently and so deserved the chance to run as candidates.

Election watchdogs have condemned the decision as subverting the integrity of regional elections as it would open the door for problematic candidates who have criminal records to become regional leaders.

“There is a possibility that voters will vote for problematic candidates, especially if the candidates portray themselves as victims who have been criminalized by law enforcement,” said Titi Anggraini, executive director of election watchdog the Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem).

The decision also appears to contravene Article 7 of the Regional Elections Law, which stipulates that candidates should never have been convicted.

Analyst Phillips Vermonte questioned the legislative decision to allow convicts to run in regional elections. The head of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) argued that such a decision tainted the core principle of democratic elections.

“We hold elections in order to elect leaders to protect the people from unconstitutional acts. Allowing convicts to run in elections defeats this purpose. How can we expect a convict to uphold the law?” said Phillips.

The KPU is unlikely to be able to reject the House’s proposal since Article 9 of the law requires it to consult with the House and the government when arranging technical guidelines for elections and the decisions made in consultation meetings are binding.

KPU commissioner Hadar Nafis Gumay said that in the decision-making for the PKPU, the commissioner no longer had the final say, he could only express opinions. In practice, it is the House that has the power whether to agree or disagree with the regulation. “If the hearing decides that, it doesn’t mean we agree with it, but now we can only follow the PKPU as drafted because the results of the consultation are binding on us,” Hadar said.

Separately, Home Minister Tjahjo Kumolo insisted that the government would stick to its commitment to create trusted and clean regional leaders. “In principal, the government will follow the KPU. It’s common to have a full debate with the legislative body. The House only gave advice on how the regulation should treat those convicted of minor or unintentional violations,” Tjahjo said.