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n what could be seen as the political rise of the capital’s poor, the Jakarta Urban Poor Network (JRMK) has challenged legislative candidates to present their ideas before its members in order to win their votes.

The group is organizing a convention and has invited candidates aiming to enter the City Council (DPRD), the House of Representatives and the Regional Legislative Council (DPD). Four DPRD candidates and three House candidates from various political parties have registered for the convention, however no DPD candidates have registered.

One more candidate had expressed an intention to register for the convention, said Gugun Muhammad, of the Urban Poor Consortium, who is also an advisor to the JRMK.

“At the end of this month, we will invite the candidates to present their ideas in front of JRMK members. We want to know what kind of concrete contributions they can give to us when elected,” Gugun said on Saturday.

A few days before the screening, each candidate will be given clues about what questions they will be asked, a similar method to the General Elections Commission (KPU) for presidential debates. The subjects discussed during the screening will include kampung improvement, guarantees to live without fear of being forcefully evicted, safe working environments and the fulfillment of basic rights.

“We want to hear feasible ideas. They cannot bluff and promise to create this or that regulation, because alone they cannot pass a law. So we want to hear the concrete things they will do,” Gugun said.

There will be also a question and answer session on topics focused on the environment, law and corruption, arts and spatial planning. Experts on each subject will be presented to deliver questions to the candidates.

After the presentation and Q&A sessions, five representatives from each neighborhood unit (RT) will vote for the candidates. The one with the highest votes will get the support of the JRMK.

Members of the JRMK are spread across 16 of the city’s kampungs, covering four electoral districts (dapil) namely, dapil 2, dapil 3, dapil 9 and dapil 10 for the DPRD. These dapils mainly cover the northern and western parts of Jakarta. While for the House election, members of the JRMK are mainly spread across dapil 3 Jakarta, which covers Thousand Islands regency, West Jakarta and North Jakarta.

For the DPRD election, the JMRK has promised it can provide at least 2,500 votes per dapil, while for the House election, the group claims to be able to contribute no less than 10,000 supporters.

The group has previously thrown its support behind then-Jakarta governor candidates Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and Anies Baswedan, who were successful in their bids to become Jakarta’s leaders. While saying he believed Anies was trying to fulfill his political promises, like producing a Community Action Plan (CAP) to develop kampungs and attempting to allow becak (pedicab) drivers to operate in certain areas, Gugun argued that the progress made by the governor had been too slow.

This is the first time the group has invited legislative candidates after realizing that an executive alone could not do much to translate their aspirations into concrete actions.

“We actually expect to screen 30 to 40 candidates. But it seems that this is a strange concept for many of them and they think that conventional campaigns like giving staple foods will work better to earn votes,” Gugun said.

Political expert from Paramadina University Hendri Satrio said that such an initiative deserved appreciation as it indicated that political awareness at the grassroots level was high. He called on other communities to follow suit and urged the KPU to facilitate such a move from neutral groups.

“This is actually a good opportunity for candidates to earn support. However, many of them from big parties think they already have enough supporters. But then again, to present ideas before the public requires courage and many of them may not have that,” Hendri said.