Ahmad Fikri, Bandung – In order to fulfill the requirements of the National Election Commission (KPU), a number of provincial legislative candidates have submitted copies of diplomas which have been certified by the Siliwangi III Regional Military Command (Kodam). The reason they gave for this was because their schools had already been closed down.

This was revealed to journalists by West Java KPU member, Memet A Hakim, at the West Java KPU offices on Jl Garut in Bandung on Monday January 5.

A diploma which has been certified by Kodam represents one of the mistakes which has been found by the West Java KPU after completing an examination of the administrative requirements for legislative candidates.

Of the 12 requirements, a number of legislative candidates were unable to submit complete dossiers. Hakim explained that the certification of a diploma is included as one of the 12 requirements which must be fulfilled. From the results of their examination of the administrative requirements however, many legislative candidates had not done this.

A number of legislative candidates said that their schools had already been closed down and their original diplomas lost. A number of them then took the initiative to submit copies of diplomas which had been certified by Kodam. “[But] the total is less than 10 people”, said Hakim.

Of course a copy of a diploma [certified by Kodam] will be rejected by the KPU. The KPU will only accept an statement on the validity of a diploma from two departments, that is the department of education for public schools and the department of religion for religious schools.

Disqualification

West Java KPU will submit  its findings to the respective political parties. The legislative candidates have been given until January 19 to complete the requirements. “If there is just one requirement which is not fulfilled, the legislative candidate will automatically be disqualified”, said Hakim. (iy)

[Translated by James Balowski.]