Parties Continue to Back Former Corruption Convicts as Candidates

KOMPAS/WAWAN H PRABOWO

A General Election Commission (KPU) official inspects lists of candidates for seats in the House of Representatives (DPR) at the KPU Office in Jakarta on Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2018. The determination of candidates for the DPR, Provincial/City Legislative Councils (DPRD) and the Regional Representatives Council (DPD) and the presidential and vice presidential candidates will be announced on Thursday, Sept. 20.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — A number of political parties have decided to violate an integrity pact not to nominate former corruption convicts as legislative candidates. The Supreme Court\'s ruling to allow former corruption convicts to run as legislative candidates was the main justification.

The General Election Commission (KPU) will publish the curriculum vitae of all candidates, including of former corruption convicts, through the candidacy information system. This will be done after establishing fixed candidate lists (DCT) for the election of members of the House of Representatives (DPR), Regional Representatives Council (DPD), Provincial/City Legislative Councils (DPRD) and presidential and vice presidential candidate pairs on Thursday.

The KPU is considering announcing the status of former corruption convict candidates at polling stations on voting day on April 17, 2019.

Based on General Election Supervisory Body (Bawaslu) data, as of Sept. 17, 42 former corruption convicts seeking to run as candidates had submitted appeals to the restriction. To date, Bawaslu has granted 36 requests, while one case is still being processed and the remaining have been rejected or dropped.

KPU member Wahyu Setiawan said on Wednesday in Jakarta that the determination of the candidate lists would continue. However, candidates must submit the required documents no later than three days after the KPU regulation on the revised candidacy rules was announced. The documents include certificates from the heads of the correctional institutions they were housed in explaining that the related person had finished serving their criminal imprisonment, as well as copies of the court verdicts.

Continued support

A number of political parties said they would continue to back former corruption convicts seeking to become legislative candidates. Gerindra Party deputy chairperson Sufmi Dasco Ahmad, for example, said that his party would still propose Jakarta Legislative Council (DPRD Jakarta) Deputy Speaker M Taufik as a DPRD Jakarta legislative candidate. Even though Taufik had been convicted in a corruption case. Sufmi Dasco said, "based on the party’s Central Executive Board (DPP) record, nothing has happened to harm the party\'s good name or the credibility of the person in question."

Deputy secretary-general of the Democratic Party Renanda Bachtar said, from the beginning the party had committed to not having former corruption convicts run as candidates from the party. "If there are still ones in some regions, we want reports from the public. In such an event, the party’s central executive board will instruct the regional managements to cancel their candidacy," he said.

Based on Kompas\' findings, Democratic Party politician Jhoni Hasibuan, a former corruption convict, is still on the candidate list for the DPRD Cilegon election.

Chairman of the Cilegon chapter of the Democratic Party Rahmatuloh said, after the Supreme Court ruling was issued, Jhoni could still take part in the 2019 election.

Bahri Syamsu Arief of the National Mandate Party (PAN) is another former corruption convict also still listed as a candidate for the DPRD Cilegon election.

In Jambi, two candidates from PAN, namely Abdul Fattah and Nasrullah Hamka, are still registered as legislative candidates.

Abdul Fattah is a former Batanghari regent, who was sentenced to one year and two months in prison for a graft case pertaining to fire truck procurement in 2004. Nasrullah Hamka is a former member of DPRD Jambi, who was convicted of corruption related to the construction of an athletics track at Tri Lomba Juang KONI Stadium in Jambi in 2012.

Chairman of PAN’s Jambi chapter Bakri said he handed over the fate of Abdul Fattah and Nasrullah Hamka to the KPU\'s policy.

PAN was previously one the six of the 10 parties in the House of Representatives that said they would not nominate former corruption convicts. Besides PAN, the NasDem Party, the National Awakening Party (PKB), the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), the United Development Party (PPP) and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) made the same commitment.

PDI-P’s Central Sulawesi chapter chose to remove Idris Tadji from the Poso regency as a legislative candidate, despite the former corruption convict winning his dispute with Bawaslu Poso.

(GAL/ITA/BAY/REN/VDL/APA)