TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A number of people have criticized the plan opposed by House of Representative of assigning political party representatives in the General Election Commission, which was originally banned. “If it’s true, it violates the constitution. A player shouldn’t be a referee too,” said Fadli Ramadhani, a researcher from Society for Elections and Democracy on Sunday, March 26, 2017.
Fadli suspects that it is the main cause of the delay of the selection process for General Election Commission (KPU) and General Election Supervisory Board (Bawaslu) members. He said, the House of Representatives has yet to conduct a feasibility and propriety test for KPU and Bawaslu members, while President Jokowi had already handed over the selection result on February 23, 2017.
“The House of Representatives is required to process it within 30 working days,” Fadli said. This means that the test can only be done until April 7, 2017.
A researcher from the Indonesian Corruption Watch, Almas Ghaliya Sjafrina, urged the House to immediately process the selection results. Almas concerns of the plan to assign political party members to KPU, “political parties are participants of the general elections. They must be separated from an independent organizer,” she said.
Vice Chairman of the Government Commission at the House of Representatives, Lukman Edy, confirmed that they plan to fuse political parties into the main body of KPU and Bawaslu. This option emerged after a special committee previously conducted a study in Germany and Mexico.
“Over there, organizers for the general elections consist of government, political parties, and judiciary elements,” Lukman said on Sunday, March 26, 2017. He views that having representatives of political parties would minimize the potential of foul play.
According to Lukman, currently, the option is to continue the selection process with the target of electing three commissioners while the rest will be elected after the General Election Law is ratified. Member of the special committee for the General Election Management Bill, Taufiqulhadi, revealed that the special committee agreed to add the number of commissioners to 11 members from previously seven members. Meanwhile, Bawaslu will have nine members instead of the current five.
They also considered the option to ask for an extension of the tenure of KPU and Bawaslu commissioners.
HUSSEIN ABRI