Ex-Prisoner Cannot Be a Candidate in Regional Election
Friday, 28 March, 2008 | 15:29 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: Factions in the House of Representative and government eventually agreed to forbid ex- prisoners from being candidates in the regional elections.

“Candidates for regional leader should not be imprisoned for five years or more,” said head of the government’s commission, EE Mangindaan, after the meeting between the commission and Home Affairs Minister Mardiyanto yesterday.

Some of the factions asked for more explanation about Article 58-f, regulation No. 32 year 2004 about the regional government. The explanation, said Mangindaan, is related to the correlation between the punishment and the criminal conviction.

The deputy for the commission, Sayuti Asyathri, said the Article will need to explain it in detail. For example, an ex-prisoner is allowed to be a candidate when he is punished for five years and convicted for three years. But he will not be allowed if he is punishes for five years although he is only convicted for one year. “It is not fair. That's why we have to make a standard rule correlating the conviction with the punishment,” he said.

This standard, Sayuti said, will be written by the government and finished at least by next Monday. A special team will discuss the conclusion before the revision for the regulation about the regional government is approved in the plenary session next April.

Minister Mardiyanto said the government is ready to formulate the draft. “We will make a correlation between the verdict and the punishment,” he said.

Dwi Riyanto Agustiar