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House, govt. still split on resignation issue in regional poll bill
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General Election Commission (KPU) member Hadar Nafis Gumay shows examples of candidacy forms, candidate declaration forms and the recapitulation of support figure forms for independent candidates in the 2017 second round of simultaneous regional elections at the KPU Center headquarters in Jakarta on April 20. (Antara/Reno Esnir)
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awmakers and the government remain at loggerheads over whether members of the House of Representatives, regional representatives councils and the Regional Legislative Council should resign from their posts if they wish to run as candidates in the upcoming regional elections.
Currently, representatives of the government and lawmakers are deliberating the revision of Regional Elections Law.
Home Affairs Minister Tjahjo Kumolo said on Thursday that the government would abide by the Constitutional Court's ruling that lawmakers had to quit their posts if they decided to take part in a regional election.
Yandri Susanto, a lawmaker from the National Mandate Party (PAN) criticized the government for changing its initial stance.
"I worry the government's new stance will delay the deliberation of the law revision," said Yandri, who is a member of the House’s working unit tasked with revising the law, in Jakarta on Friday.
Yandri stressed that his team would defend an earlier agreement that lawmakers did not need to resign to take part in a regional election.
Meanwhile, although Tjahjo understood the lawmakers’ stance on the resignation issue, he said the government did not want to challenge the Constitutional Court’s ruling that lawmakers have to leave their posts if they want to run as regional candidates.
"We want to abide by the Constitutional Court's ruling," Tjahjo said, as quoted by kompas.com, in Jakarta on Thursday.
The House had set April as the target to complete the revision of the Regional Elections Law, which will be the legal basis for the implementation of simultaneous elections to elect seven governors, 18 mayors and 76 regents across the country on Feb. 15, next year. (bbn)
