Ezra Sihite & Agus Triyono – The House of Representatives elected late on Thursday the seven members of the General Elections Commission, even as civil society groups continued to question the capability of the little-known elected figures.
Ida Budhiati, who will be the only woman on the commission, and Sigit Pamungkas topped the other candidates with 45 votes each from the House Commission II members, followed by Arief Budiman's 43 votes.
The newly elected members of the electoral body known as the KPU, who will serve until 2017, are responsible for the 2014 general election.
Ida and Arief are currently serving as the heads of the Central Java and East Java election commissions respectively.
Juri Ardiantoro, another new member, is the head of the Jakarta KPU, and Hadar Nafis Gumay, a former executive director for the Center for Electoral Reform (Cetro), has a extensive experience in poll monitoring.
However, there is little known about the qualifications of the three other members. "They are the best candidates," said Agun Gunanjar Sudarsa, the head of the House commission that oversees domestic affairs.
Previously, a coalition of NGOs, including the Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (Fitra) and Indonesia Corruption Watch, raised questions about the capacity of the candidates.
They cited the candidates' poor knowledge, lack of experience, integrity and professionalism, having ties to political parties and suspicion of involvement in graft cases.
Husni Kamil Malik and Ferry Kurnia Rizkiansyah round out the seven-member commission.
The KPU is responsible for the technical aspects of elections. The Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court and the police handle accusations of election fraud.
The general elections in 2004 and 2009 were considered successes by many observers, but complaints of fraud in several regions still prompted concerns over their fairness.
The House also elected the five members of Election Supervisory Board (Bawaslu).
The Indonesian Civic Network (Lima), meanwhile, asked the House to delay the inauguration to the newly elected members due to under-representation of women. The group has said that the law states that 30 percent of the positions on the KPU and Bawaslu must be allocated to women.
"It means that at least three KPU members and two Bawaslu members have to be women. Now, though, we have only one woman in each," Lima coordinator Ray Rangkuti said.