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Gorontalo governor wants court to relax requirement about convicts
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Gorontalo Governor Rusli Habibie. (JP/Syamsul Huda M. Suhari)
G
orontalo's incumbent governor, Rusli Habibie, who wants to run for a second term, filed for a judicial review with the Constitutional Court against the 2016 law on regional leader elections, especially the rule on convicts running for office.
Rusli filed the request to review Article 7 paragraph 2G in Law No. 10/2016, the revision of Law No. 1/2014 on elections of governors, regents and mayors. The paragraph says candidates have to meet requirements, including that they have never been convicted of a crime.
Rusli said the paragraph did not stipulate a time limit of punishment for a convict, which in his view would limit the political rights of a citizen like him. Rusli was convicted in a case of defamation against the head of the National Narcotics Agency (BNN), Comr. Gen. Budi Waseso, who was a Gorontalo Police chief. He was sentenced to a year in jail and two years on probation.
“I have never received the copy of the decision, so my status is the same. I am the usual, the same old Rusli Habibie,” he said.
He plans to register himself as a candidate to become Gorontalo governor on Friday.
He was recently reported to the police for defamation by his rival in the upcoming election, Zainuddin Hassan. The accusation was connected to Rusli’s alleged posting in a Whatsapp chat group, in which he shared Zainuddin’s picture along with the word wadala, which means "horse" in the local language. (evi)
