Noticias

The Democratic Party (PD) is prepared to face all possible outcomes in the 2014 general elections, including playing the role of official opposition if they fail to win.

“As a political party, you should prepare for all possible scenarios, including becoming the opposition. And if it comes to that, as Pak SBY [President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono] always says, we will be ready,” said strategy and policy development head for the PD central executive board Ulil Abshar Abdalla in Jakarta on Tuesday.

Jakarta. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has filed a two-day leave request to enable him to campaign for the Democratic Party and support his son Edhie Baskoro Yudhoyono’s bid for regional office.

“[Yudhoyono] has submitted leave for two days,” State Palace spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha said, as quoted by Indonesian news portal Tribunnews.com.

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono hoped that the quality of national politics and democracy will continue to improve along with improving awareness of all parties and reform processes.

"Let us make our politics and democracy more mature, civilized and qualitative," he in his twitter account @SBYudhoyono monitored by Antara here on Wednesday.

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Judicial Commission cooperates with the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) in the selection process for supreme court justice candidates. "We have signed an MoU with them," said Imam Anshori Soleh, spokesman for the Judicial Commission, on Monday.

Imam said the KPK and PPATK work in the administrative stage. Both agencies will check the wealth or suspicious flow of money from the candidates. "The data we ask to the candidates is from KPK. It’s like an opinion," he said.

The Democratic Party's (PD) ongoing convention, to select the party’s presidential candidate, will pause— March 16 to April 5 — so the party can concentrate on the legislative election, a committee member says.

“We are concentrating on the legislative election,” the convention committee secretary, Suaidi Marasabessy, said as reported by kompas.com on Tuesday.

Suaidi added that so far the debates had been held in Medan, Palembang, Bandung, Denpasar, Surabaya, Balikpapan, Bogor and Makassar. The ninth city was Ambon, which hosted the debate at the Islamic Center on Tuesday.

Despite a moratorium on campaign ads, Election Supervisory Committee (Bawaslu) commissioner Nelson Simanjuntak admitted that his committee was powerless to halt the slew of campaign ads appearing in both electronic and print media due to the absence of a clear-cut legal regulation restricting them.

“The moratorium should have been adhered to by the parties in line with their moral basis,” he said on Monday as quoted by tempo.co.

Nelson said reports of violations would always be bogged down in the police over arguments regarding whether ads actually constituted a violation.

Golkar politician Indra Jaya Pilian said on Sunday that there was no possibility that Golkar chairman Aburizal Bakrie would run as a vice presidential candidate in the 2014 presidential election.

“Our stance is clear, ARB [Aburizal Bakrie] will be a presidential candidate and under no circumstances will he run for VP,” said Indra during a discussion called Who is The Dark Horse 2014, as quoted byAntara.

He admitted that the clear position meant his party was ready to face any outcome in the upcoming election.

“The worst scenario would be to lose,” he said.

Political parties must nominate qualified candidates for the legislative election to avoid voter apathy in Indonesia, a lawmaker has said.

Hidayat Nurwahid, the Islamic-based Prosperous Justice Party lawmaker, said legislative candidates must be tested thoroughly and should have a track record that indicates they have the capacity to represent the Indonesian people in both the legislative and executive bodies.

“If parties offer the public a variety of qualified candidates, people will be more inclined to cast their votes,” he said on Sunday afternoon.