A General Election with Integrity
The disagreement between the General Elections Commission and the Elections Supervisory Agency on whether or not former corruption convicts can contest legislative elections at central and regional levels are seemingly much more than a contestation between the two bodies.
/https%3A%2F%2Fkompas.id%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F09%2F20180809AIC05.jpg){kind=logo}
An officer of the General Elections Commission (KPU) arranges a nameplate bearing the Indonesian acronym for “presidential candidate” on Thursday (9/8/2018) at the KPU headquarters in Jakarta, ahead of the candidate registration for the 2019 presidential election.
The disagreement between the General Elections Commission (KPU) and the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) on whether or not former corruption convicts can contest legislative elections at central and regional levels are seemingly much more than a contestation between the two bodies. This disagreement may threaten the integrity of the general election on April 17 -- not only organizationally, but also results wise.
In line with KPU Regulation No. 20/2018, former convicts in cases relating to corruption, drug-related crimes and sexual assault against children are banned from contesting all legislative elections at central and regional levels. As the KPU is consistent with its ban, Bawaslu has thus far allowed former corruption convicts to register as legislative candidates. As of earlier this week, there have been 16 such candidates.