Political parties are sacrificing quality for quantity by nominating candidates for seats in all constituencies and not doing enough to nominate women, poll observers say.
Masykurudin Hafidz, the deputy director of the People’s Voter Education Network (JPPR), said on Sunday that most parties were doing themselves no favors by trying to cover all constituencies with whoever was available instead of just focusing on nominating the best possible candidates in fewer constituencies.
“They’re forcing themselves to go after every seat that’s up for grabs without actually paying much attention to the paperwork needed for each nomination,” he said in Jakarta.
The JPPR previously said that 11 percent of the 6,576 nominations filed by 12 parties for next year’s legislative election lacked the required supporting documentation, leaving the candidates liable to disqualification by the General Elections Commission (KPU).
Masykurudin said that if the parties had instead been more realistic and focused on nominating quality candidates in constituencies where they stood a fair chance of winning, they would not find themselves in the current administrative quandary of having to provide the KPU with the missing documents or nominating new candidates altogether.
Separately, Titi Anggraeni, the executive director of the Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem), said the parties also seemed to have given little thought to nominating female candidates, who by law must account for 30 percent of a party’s total candidates.
Titi pointed out that while the parties technically met the quota, deeper digging revealed that the female candidates were rarely the first or even second choice for seats in any given constituency.
Only in 5.5 percent of cases were women the first choice, according to data from the KPU, while they were the second choice in 9.4 percent of cases.
Some 25.8 percent were the third choice, while 6 percent were the fourth choice, 10.9 percent the fifth choice and 20.1 percent the sixth choice.
“It’s apparent that political parties aren’t giving female legislative candidates a fair opportunity,” Titi said.
by: Yeremia Sukoyo
source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/parties-too-focused-on-getting-seats-regardless-of-candidates/
