Jakarta – The new lineup of experts and activists on the General Elections Commission (KPU) approved by the House of Representatives will ensure that the KPU performs better than its last batch of politically connected commissioners, several watchdog groups agree.
A representative from the Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem) was pleased that some of the soon-to-be-inaugurated KPU officials had experience on regional elections commissions (KPUD).
"It's quite good. Five are former KPUD members, one is an academic and another is a member of a poll watchdog," Perludem spokesman Veri Junaidi said.
The House approved on March 17 the appointments of incoming members of the KPU and the Elections Monitoring Body (Bawaslu) for the next five years.
After completing a lengthy selection process, lawmakers approved Juri Ardiantoro, Ida Budhiati, Arif Budiman, Hadar Nafis Gumay, Husni Kamil Manik, Sigit Pamungkas and Ferry Kurnia Rizkiyansyah to sit on the KPU.
Veri said that the new KPU commissioners were likely be free from political influence, unlike their predecessors. "As the new lineup indicates, we did not see during the House selection stage that they had relationships with political parties," he said.
The only drawback of the new commissioners, Veri said, was that only one member had a legal background. "That's my criticism. This was a big problem in 2009. There were too many legal complication in the last election and we need more legal experts," he said.
The outgoing KPU members have been criticized for their chaotic management of legislative elections in 2009 and for their ties to political parties. Former KPU member Andi Nurpati, for example, resigned as a commissioner in 2010 and joined the Democratic Party as its communications chief soon thereafter.
Andi was allegedly involved in falsifying a Constitutional Court (MK) letter during her tenure at the KPU in 2009 in favor of a legislative candidate from South Sulawesi.
Meanwhile, Abdullah Dahlan, a political corruption researcher from the Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW), said that although some of the new commissioners had ties to political parties, they would likely perform better simply because of their backgrounds in managing elections.
Abdullah, however, said that the lawmakers' decision to name the new commissioners was dictated by political expediency and not the needs of the KPU. "[The commissioners] are not entirely independent, but the good news is that [they] have backgrounds in managing elections."
Abdullah said the evolution of the nation's electoral system would also ease the burden on the new commissioners in the run-up to the 2014 polls. "We are no longer in a transition period, but in a stage of consolidation. This is what the new KPU members should finish," Abdullah said.
However, Abdullah disagreed with Veri's assessment of the importance of the new commissioners' experience at the regional level. "Ideally, the members should have a background in elections. But they should've considered other issues, such as their experience with the issues of law and logistics," he said.
Separately, an activist from the Center for Electoral Reform (CETRO), Khoirunnisa Agustyati, said that there were not enough women in the batch of new commissioners.
Khoirunnisa also said that the House had taken seriously several suggestions made by election watchdogs that had been monitoring the commissioner selection process. "We sent them recommendations about which candidates were good ones, and they were open to us," she said.
A member of the KPU selection committee, Siti Zuhro, said that women were underrepresented on the KPU. "The General Elections Law stipulates on 30 percent quota for woman. But we don't just want women, we want women with capability," Siti said, adding that there were only a handful of qualified women candidates for the commissioner positions.
The House approved seven new KPU members. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is slated to swear in the new members on April 9. (fzm)