Jakarta Vetting Slashes Party List

SP/Anastasia Winanti

Only three of 18 minor political parties given a lifeline in November after being disqualified from running in the 2014 election have gone on to pass the verification process for the Jakarta region.

Dahliah Umar, the chairwoman of the Jakarta General Elections Commission (KPU), said on Thursday that the parties going through were the Independent People’s Union (SRI), the Prosperous Peace Party (PDS) and the Indonesian Workers and Employers Party (PPPI).

“At the provincial level, these were the only parties that met the criteria of having enough members in five out of the six regions in Jakarta,” Dahliah said.

The Jakarta administrative region comprises the five municipalities of East, West, North, South and Central Jakarta, and the Thousand Islands district.

The KPUD said the 15 parties that failed the verification process would have a chance to lodge their objections with the national-level General Elections Commission (KPU).

Dahliah said most of the objections centered on the requirement to include the sparsely populated Thousand Islands in the final consideration.

“Some have questioned why the Thousand Islands are counted as a district at all, which is of course a matter of their perception,” she said.

“But what we want to stress is that our decision is based on regulations that clearly state that a party must have members in at least 75 percent of municipalities and districts in order to be eligible to run in a given province. In Jakarta’s case, that means in five out of the six municipalities and district.”

Most of the 15 parties that fell short had failed to prove that they had at least 1,000 members in the Thousand Islands.

Each party must pass the provincial verification process in all 33 provinces nationwide in order to be considered eligible to contest the 2014 legislative election.

The 18 parties that underwent the verification in Jakarta had been disqualified by the KPU last year after failing to meet other requirements, including a minimum 30 percent female representation.

However, the Election Organizers Ethics Council (DKPP) overturned the decision in November, effectively giving the parties another stab at qualifying.

Two of the three parties that went through are among the more high-profile from the batch of minor parties.

SRI has gained particular prominence for its plan to field former Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati as a presidential candidate. Sri Mulyani, who is now a managing director of the World Bank and is in no way affiliated with the party, has acknowledged its intention but not said whether she will run for president.

The Christian-based PDS garnered enough votes in the 2004 election to win 13 seats at the House of Representatives, but missed out on returning to the House after a poor showing in the 2009 election.

Both the PDS and the PPPI have been closely linked with the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), which has been actively merging with smaller parties ahead of the 2014 presidential poll in which its co-founder, Prabowo Subianto, is the current frontrunner.