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Ex-graft convicts on ballots for 2024 legislative race
The Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) has found at least 56 former graft convicts on the final list of 2024 legislative candidates issued by the General Elections Commission (KPU) early this month.
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A Central Jakarta General Elections Commission (KPU) official moves a ballot box for the 2024 elections at a warehouse in Sawah Besar, Central Jakarta on Nov. 2, 2023. (Antara/Aditya Pradana Putra)
Dozens of people convicted in the past for corruption are running in the 2024 legislative elections amid criticism from civil groups that the election organizer has yet done enough to educate the public about their tainted legal history.
The Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) found at least 56 former graft convicts on the final list of 2024 legislative candidates issued by the General Elections Commission (KPU) early this month. According to the graft watchdog report, 27 of these former convicts will compete for seats in the House of Representatives and seven will run for Regional Representatives Council (DPD) positions.
The remaining 22 will run for seats in the regional legislative councils (DPRD) at the provincial, city and regency levels.
The Golkar Party, currently the second-largest party in the House, had the most former corruption convicts running as legislative candidates with nine people. It was followed by the NasDem Party, which endorsed seven former graft convicts.
Among the names of former graft convicts was Susno Duadji, a former National Police chief detective, who was convicted of misappropriation of general election security funds when serving as West Java Police chief and accepting bribes during an investigation into an investment scam.
Susno, freed from prison in 2015, is running next year for a House seat in South Sumatra with the National Awakening Party (PKB).
The ICW also highlighted that political parties backing some of the former graft convicts put them as top priorities in their respective electoral districts, marked by their assignment on no. 1 or 2 in their respective ballots.
