Governor hopefuls all pass KPUD requirements

Dicky Christanto , The Jakarta Post , Denpasar | Wed, 05/21/2008 10:43 AM | Bali

Chairman of the Bali General Elections Commission (KPUD) Anak Agung Gde Oka Wisnumurti has announced all the three candidate pairs for the upcoming gubernatorial election had fulfilled all administrative requirements for the election.

The announcement was made on the weekend after the commission had verified all necessary requirements submitted by the candidates.

"We have examined submitted documents, which comprised 25 different forms from each candidate, and found no discrepancies on them. Therefore, we declare all pairs to have passed the administration selection stage and are ready to be called governor hopefuls," Wisnumurti said at a press conference.

He said the commission would officially announce the pairs' candidacy on May 26. The announcement will be followed with a lottery to determine the official number of each candidate to be used for campaign materials and ballot papers.

Wisnumurti said the commission would also invite the candidates' campaign teams to attend a meeting to discuss the campaign schedule.

The lottery session will be carried out publicly in an effort to maintain transparency in the election.

"Whatever the results are, all candidates must accept them without suspecting commission members have been involved in the outcome," he said.

The first pair, Made Mangku Pastika and AA Puspayoga, is backed by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the largest political party on the island. The party secured 51.34 percent of votes in the 2004 legislative election.

The second pair is Cokorda Budi Suryawan and I Nyoman Suwetha, supported by the Bali People Coalition, comprising five political parties, including Golkar. Golkar, the island's second largest party, held 29 percent of votes at the last legislative election.

The last pair is I Gde Winasa and Alit Putra, which is endorsed by the Coalition for Bali Awakening, a group of twelve minor parties.

Election Monitoring Committee official Made Wena praised the KPUD for its measures in conducting the general election, saying it had complied with the regulations.

"We have found no indication of misconduct by the KPUD. But I will make sure by keeping a close eye on them for the rest of the general election," he said.

The Bali gubernatorial election is scheduled to take place on July 9 and will involve around 2,705,611 eligible voters. Votes will be cast at more than 6,000 polling stations across the island.

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