Jakarta – A ruling from the Election Organizers Ethics Council (DKPP) has added to the woes of the General Election Commission, which has been dogged by allegations of irregularities in recent weeks.
The council said on Tuesday that the KPU had to repeat the factual verification process for the applications of 18 political parties that it previous disqualified.
"[We] require that the KPU follow the Election Supervisory Body's [Bawaslu] recommendation to include 12 political parties in the factual verification process, and include six other political parties that were not included in the recommendation," DKPP chairman Jimly Asshidiqie said.
The council also ruled that the KPU had to execute its decision without disrupting the KPU's existing schedule.
The KPU declared in late October that 16 of 34 registered political parties had passed the administrative verification process for the 2014 elections and would proceed to the factual verification stage.
However, in early November, Bawaslu recommended that the KPU advance 12 disqualified parties to the factual verification stage, stating that the commission had not been transparent in its work.
After the KPU rejected the recommendation, Bawaslu filed a complaint with the DKPP, alleging that the KPU had violated ethics rules.
In its ruling, the DKPP said that the KPU's secretary-general was responsible for the problems. "We recommend that the KPU immediately dismiss the members of its secretariat general, because they have breached the code of ethics," Jimly said.
The KPU's secretariat general had refused to cooperate with the KPU's commissioners, adversely impacting the verification process, the DKPP said.
The DKPP's decision supports statements made by KPU officials, who also blamed the secretariat for the irregularities. KPU commissioner Ida Budhiati, for example, previously said that employees in the KPU secretariat, mostly officials seconded from the Home Ministry, declined to send workers to aid with the initial verification process on Oct. 16.
KPU officials said that it would take some time before the DKPP's decision could be implemented.
Separately, August Mellaz, a researcher with the Democratic Elections Association (Perludem) criticized the ethics body's decision as lacking teeth. "In some parts of the decision, the ruling hints that some KPU commissioners might have breached some ethics code. But they can get away, without even any warning," August said.
Former KPU commissioner I Gusti Putu Artha said that the KPU would have serious problems in repeating the factual verification process for the 18 parties. "Given the limited time and budget, the factual verification of the 18 parties will be of very poor quality," he said.
The final result of the factual verification process is expected to be announced on Jan. 8. Each party is given two months to comply with electoral requirements. Representatives of several parties said that they should be given more time to prepare.
"We demand that the KPU also give us two months for the verification, just like the 16 political parties that previously completed it," Daniel Hutapea, chairman of the Indonesian Workers and Employers Party (PPPI), said. (riz)