The Indonesian Constitutional Court (MK) today made an important ruling that effectively eases the way for independent candidates to be nominated for regional leadership positions starting in 2017.
Previously, the Law on Regional Elections stated that independent candidates must garner a certain percentage of support from their region’s population in order to qualify for nomination.
But Detik reported that, after the ruling today, independent candidates must only garner support from registered voters as opposed to the region’s whole population in order to qualify, effective from 2017 onwards.
How does this apply to Jakarta? We all know that Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama is party-less and has said that he wants to run as an independent in 2017, which has become an absolutely realistic prospect after MK’s ruling.
Previously, Ahok, who quit the Gerindra party over ideological differences, had to obtain support (in the form of signatures and photocopies of KTP ID cards) from 7.5% of Jakarta’s population of roughly 10 million, which translates to around 750,000 people.
Now, Ahok only has to obtain support from 7.5% of the number of registered voters in the last Jakarta gubernatorial elections. In 2012, that number was 7 million, which means that Ahok now has to gain 525 thousand supporters in order to run as an independent in 2017.
Getting half a million supporters is no easy task, but considering how Ahok’s supporters have already obtained almost 250 thousand KTPs at www.temanahok.org by the end of September (and over 100 thousand this month alone), we’re confident that Ahok will be able to meet the minimum requirement and then some when the nominations for independent candidates close on July 2016.
