Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama has already acquired the minimum amount of Jakartan voter IDs to be eligible for an independent run in the 2017 gubernatorial elections. Even so, it appears that the rules and requirements regarding independent candidacy are not set in stone and are still subject to change, at least according to the General Election Commission (KPU)
Recently, the KPU was mulling a draft revision of the regional election laws to introduce a requirement whereby all voter IDs and forms acquired for a candidate’s independent run must include a legal materai stamp. Since each materai stamp costs Rp 6,000, that means Ahok would have to shell out around Rp 3.8 billion for the 640,000 voter IDs he has already collected as of today. If he wants to pursue his target of 1 million voter IDs, he would have to pay Rp 6 billion for materai stamps.
Hearing this, Ahok said he feels that there are forces that are attempting to prevent his independent run.
“They all wish that I was not governor, right? That’s fine, I’ll finish [my mandate] until October 2017 and then they can party afterwards,” Ahok said at City Hall today, as quoted by Tempo.
However, KPU Commissioner Hadar Nafis Gumay said yesterday that the commission decided against going forward with the draft for revision, and that the old requirement of one materai stamp for each neighborhood representative still applies. So no, it looks like Ahok won’t have to buy Rp 6 billion worth of materai and it appears that his independent run is safe – for now.
