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Jakarta Post

Coalition calls for independent, competent election commissioners

Fachrul Sidiq (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Tue, January 3, 2017 Published on Jan. 3, 2017 Published on 2017-01-03T16:26:56+07:00

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A worker is arranging ballot boxes at a warehouse of the Yogyakarta General Elections Commission (KPU) office in Yogyakarta on Oct. 5, 2016. A worker is arranging ballot boxes at a warehouse of the Yogyakarta General Elections Commission (KPU) office in Yogyakarta on Oct. 5, 2016. (Antara/Andreas Fitri Atmoko)

A

s selection for the General Elections Commission (KPU) and the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) commissioners are approaching its final phase, a coalition has called for a thorough selection process of the candidates currently being reviewed by a selection team.

The coalition, named Koalisi Pemilu Berintegritas (Coalition for Election with Integrity) and consisting of seven watchdogs, including Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) and the Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem), has said that competence, integrity and independence of each candidate are the three main factors that will ensure the selected commissioners, tasked to respectively handle and monitor upcoming simultaneous elections, will be able to execute their duties properly.

"To ensure scandal-free elections, the candidates' track records and political affiliations must be thoroughly checked to avoid conflicts of interests," ICW researcher Almas Sjafrina said on Tuesday.

She said the selection team should not only depend on what had been presented on each candidates’ CV, without checking their histories and suitability for the field.

(Read also:KPU told to promote regional elections outside Jakarta)

"We have to ensure, among others, that these candidates have been long concerned with elections. We can check this from their past publications," she said.

The selection team, formed by the Home Affairs Ministry, is currently reviewing 36 and 22 candidates, respectively, for commissioner posts at the KPU and Bawaslu. It will later submit the best 14 KPU and 10 Baswalu candidates to President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, before finally being reviewed by the House of Representatives Commission II.

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