TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - General Election Commission (KPU) chairman Arief Budiman said the commission had written to the Election Supervisory Agency on the latter's decision to pass former corruption convicts as legislative candidates.
Arief said the letter mentioned two requests, with the first being KPU's requesting corrections for Bawaslu's decision. “They can make corrections for Bawaslu chapters in provinces, regencies and cities,” Arief said on Monday, January 3.
Arief was referring to the Bawaslu’s decision to pass 12 former corruption convicts as legislative candidates. This decision was against the KPU's Regulation (PKPU) No. 20 Year 2018 on the Nomination of candidates for the House of Representatives, the Regional Legislative Councils for Provinces, and the Regional Legislative Councils for Municipalities/Regencies.
Article 4 of the regulation stipulates political parties are barred from nominating former convicts of corruption, narcotics and sexual abuse against children. Bawaslu, however, claimed the prohibition was bereft of a legal basis in the Law No. 7 Year 2017 on General Election.
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Arief said the KPU was neither opposed to or in favor of the decision. Besides corrections, he added, the KPU also called on the Bawaslu to postpone executing the decision. "We hope that the execution of this decision can be postponed, because the PKPU was never scrapped," he said.
Multiple parties have filed for a judicial review of PKPU No. 20 Year 2018 to the Supreme Court, which, however, said it could not process it as the Law pertaining to the PKPU was also being reviewed at the Constitutional Court.
Arief said the KPU would cling to the PKPU. "As long as there is no amendment, we will abide by that," he said.
BUDIARTI UTAMI PUTRI
