The news that Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama would be running as an independent candidate in the next Jakarta governor’s race in 2017 seems to have frightened Indonesia’s political establishment. Members of House of Representatives (DPR) Commission II are planning to make it much more difficult for independent candidates such as (and possibly including) Ahok to run by vastly increasing the requirements they need to meet to get on the ballot.
At the moment, independent candidates require the ID cards (KTP) of 6.5 to 10 percent of the total number of voters in a given region. Commission II intends to increase that requirement to 20 percent on the grounds that this would be more “in balance” with the requirements of political parties.
“Because the requirements for independent candidates is far from the requirements for political parties, we are raising it to achieve justice,” Vice Chairman of Commission II Lukman Edi told Detik.
Lukman was defensive about the measure when asked about it by Detik, saying it was not aimed specifically at impeding Ahok’s independent run.
“We’re not specifically targeting Jakarta. We are looking at all of Indonesia. Do not let a law be sacrificed for one province,” the PKB politician said today.
“In my opinion, the independent candidates that are coming forward now should not rush. Later, if the conditions are not the same, they can try again. Wait until we finish the revision,” he added.
The independent political organization known as Teman Ahok (Friends of Ahok) has already collected the KTPs of about 800,000 Jakarta voters that support Ahok’s independent run, beyond the current minimum requirement of 532,000 (or about 7.5% of all Jakarta voters).
But if Commission II’s 20% revision were to be implemented in the near future, then it would vastly increase that requirement to about 1.4 million KTPs, putting it far beyond what Teman Ahok could realistically collect in the time they have remaining – effectively blocking Ahok from running as an independent in the next governor’s race.
It would truly be a sad day for Indonesian democracy if that happened. We hope that those who support independent politicians will make their voices heard and get this revision stopped before it can become law.
