TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Chairman of the Muhammadiyah Youth Center Dahnil Anzar Simanjuntak publically supported the ban against former corruption convicts to run as legislative candidates.

“I fully support the General elections regulation (PKPU) that bars political parties from letting former convicts of corruption run for legislation,” said Dahnil yesterday, April 17.

Dahnil personally saw that the content of the law introduced by the General Elections Commission (KPU) as a daring step forward in protecting the public from the dangers of corruption.

The KPU has prepared two alternatives in implementing the rule that has the same substance, ”It only has a different mechanism, but it’s similar in substance,” said Wahyu Setiawan at the KPU headquarters.

The first option, according to Wahyu, is the direct ban mentioned in the KPU draft regulation on former convicts running for legislation. The second option is aimed at targetting the political parties of the general elections.

Article 8 of the PKPU states that legislative candidates must not be former drug dealers, former sexual criminal towards a minor, and former corruptor. KPU’s attempt is believed to be able to fix Indonesia’s democracy’s output quality by having legislative members that have never been involved in corruption.

Muhammad Hendartyo