0 No independent candidate for Bali governor post

As the registration deadline for the gubernatorial candidates closed on Dec. 24, no independent candidate had appeared to put himself forward for consideration, an official said. Ketut Sukawati Lanang Perbawa, chairman of the Bali General Elections Commission (KPUD), said that the upcoming election for the post of governor in May 2013 would see no independent candidate since not one single person had registered with KPUD to become a gubernatorial contender by the time registration closed last Sunday. 

“I don’t know why nobody has had the nerve to register as an independent candidate for the governor’s post,” Perbawa said to Bali Daily on Tuesday. Registration for independent candidates opened at the KPUD office in Denpasar on Dec. 20 and ended on Dec. 24, with the office open from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. every day. Several days before registration opened, the KPUD placed announcements in a number of local newspapers and media detailing the mechanism and requirements to be an independent candidate. 

“During the dissemination period, nobody came to the office to ask about the post and its requirements,” added Perbawa. He assumed that the requirements and mechanism were considered too complicated and too difficult for any candidate to achieve. Independent candidates were required to be supported by a minimum of 5 percent of the island’s population, or about 211,386 people, from at least five regencies. Based on Bali’s latest demographic data, the total population has reached 4.2 million, with the number of prospective voters at around 3 million people. 

Support for an independent candidate should be submitted in a signed formal letter with an attached photocopy of the identity card (KTP). As there is no independent candidate, the political parties will have the biggest role to play in the upcoming gubernatorial election. Perbawa explained that registration for candidates nominated by political parties would be opened from Jan. 31 until Feb. 6. “If we assume that the three major parties will not establish a coalition, there will be four candidates for the election. One candidate will be endorsed by a coalition of the remaining parties. 

But we don’t know exactly what will be happening in the election,” Perbawa said. The three big parties, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the Golkar Party and the Democratic Party, are the political institutions eligible to register their own candidates for the posts of governor and deputy governor for the period 2013 to 2018, based on the fact they each have more than 15 percent of the seats in the Bali Legislative Council. The PDI-P took 43 percent of the vote, Golkar 22 percent and the Democratic Party 18 percent during the previous regional election. 

A political analyst from Warmadewa University, AA Gde Oka Wisnumurti, explained that the absence of an independent candidate was a common phenomenon in many local elections in Indonesia. “People who are eager to be a candidate in an election have already realized that political parties would be the best vehicle to win. A political party already has a well-organized institution to support its candidate. A political party tends to be readier to face the competition,” Wisnumurti commented.

source : bali daily