The council’s selection committee for deputy governor began working on Monday. The committee, which consists of 25 councillors representing each faction in the legislative body, must first develop a code of conduct for a plenary meeting to be held to appoint a new deputy governor.

The committee’s deputy head Bestari Barus from the NasDem Party said he expected the development of a code of conduct would be completed after the Idul Fitri holiday in the first week of June.

“Then the [deputy governor] selection is in early August. That’s the target,” he said.

The councilors are running against time to finish their duties prior the end of the term of the 2014-2019 council in August. However, Bestari said it would be fine if the selection process took longer and needed to be handed over to new councilors.

The acting head of the Home Ministry’s regional autonomy directorate general, Akmal Malik, said that his side would be involved in the process of drafting the code of conduct.

“What needs to be done now is drafting the code of conduct. In this process, the Home Ministry will provide assistance,” he said.

Akmal also suggested the committee learn from other provinces that already had similar experiences, citing examples like Jambi and Riau.

According to Presidential Regulation No. 12/2018 on the guidelines for developing a code of conduct, the selection committee has a one-year working period.

“[The selection process] might not take one year, probably only one month because this [working term] is related to the budget,” he said.

He expressed an opinion that the committee should finish before the term of office ends.

“[The council’s] end of term of office is approaching and it would not make sense if the work was not accomplished. Drawing up a code of conduct should only take one month,” he said.

The Gerindra Party and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) — supporters of Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan in the 2017 gubernatorial election — have submitted two candidates to fill the vacant position, Ahmad Syaikhu and Agung Yulianto, both from the PKS.

With only two proposed names, Akmal emphasized that the councilor could not reject both candidates but was obliged to choose one.

“It is the council’s duty to choose one, not to reject the candidates, to do otherwise would be against the rules,” he said.

Apart from the prolonged selection process, which was only recently completed, one of the proposed candidates, Syaikhu, is believed to have been elected to become a member of the House of Representatives representing a West Java electoral district.

“If he wants to be a House member, we would include it in the code of conduct. We’ll see how it develops and what councilors want,” Bestari said.

“[The candidate] must resign from the House or any other public position,” he said.

Hence, there might be a possibility of having a new candidate submitted by the Gerindra-PKS coalition as a replacement for Syaikhu, he added.

Despite the speculation, it is not thought Syaikhu will step down from being a House candidate during the deputy governor’s selection process because the inauguration of House members will take place in October, after the expected target for appointing a new deputy governor in August.

“I haven’t been inaugurated yet. If I resign now, that would violate the rules,” he said on Tuesday, kompas.com reported.

Therefore, Syaikhu said that the selection committee must be able to develop a code of conduct in line with legal parameters.

Public policy expert from Trisakti University Trubus Rahadiansyah, however, expressed the opinion that the selection process might continue after the term of office ended, citing the council’s sluggish performance especially given the legislative body’s poor track record in completing draft bylaws.

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