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The nomination of presidential adviser Jimly Asshiddiqie as a candidate for chairman of the Corruption Eradication Commission in no way reflects President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s preference in the matter, his spokesman said on Wednesday.

Presidential spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha said that Jimly’s bid to head the antigraft commission, also known as the KPK, was his own personal initiative and not endorsed by Yudhoyono.

“The president leaves the decisions and vetting mechanism up to the selection committee,” Julian said. “He has neither intervened in any way, nor given his endorsement of Jimly’s bid.”

Yudhoyono had accepted that if Jimly were selected, he would have to resign his post on the Presidential Advisory Council, Julian said.

He added the president would never presume to dictate to the selection committee what criteria to look for in a candidate.

“The president has never backed any candidate, I can assure you,” he said.

Lawmakers raised doubts on Tuesday about the KPK’s independence should Jimly be selected chairman, citing his close ties to the president.

Former President Megawati Sukarnoputri, who established the KPK during her time in office, said the next chairman should be unshakable in the face of outside intervention or threats, and immune to bribery. “If those criteria can be met, then I believe the ideal corruption eradication program can be implemented,” she said.

Megawati added that she was deeply disappointed with the current state of the commission, which she said was easily swayed by outside interests.

She had conceived the KPK as an “extraordinary body” in response to the incompetence of the police and the Attorney General’s Office in tackling graft, she said.

“But the KPK now is clearly not working that well,” she said.

“I believe this is the result of a lack of commitment from officials in both the KPK and the government to eradicate corruption,” she added.

Jimly was nominated by the Indonesian University Rectors’ Council, which also nominated Andalas University legal expert Saldi Isra, University of Indonesia Law School dean Hikmahanto Juwana, Judicial Commission chairman Busyro Muqoddas and Constitutional Court Chief Justice Mahfud MD.

Of the five, only Jimly and Busyro, a key critic of the country’s judiciary, followed up by submitting their applications.

Jimly has been widely touted as being the best possible candidate for the post. He was appointed the first head of the Constitutional Court in 2003, before stepping down in 2008 amid plaudits for turning the court into a respected institution.

More than 400 people applied for the post but only 285 were deemed eligible. The selection committee is expected to begin vetting candidates next week.

In September, it is expected to name two candidates for final approval by the president and the House of Representatives.