Student protests marred a candidate registration announcement on Monday for the Papuan gubernatorial elections.
“We
announce today that this stage of the election has begun and that
candidate hopefuls are invited to pick up registration forms during May
14–27,” Papuan Legislative Council (DPRP) chairman Ruben Magai said.
Candidates for governor and deputy governor are required to be
indigenous Papuans, whose ethnicity, according to Ruben, will be
verified by Papuan People’s Assembly (MRP). Files of eligible candidates
will be handed to the DPRP’s special committee before being submitted
to the Papua General Elections Commission (KPUD).
“The DPRP deals
only with the registration process while further verifications will be
carried out by the KPUD,” Ruben said, adding that the stages in electing
the governor and deputy were based on the 2011 Special Regional Law No.
6.
“The DPRP team has reported the schedule to the Home Ministry
and a supervisory team from the ministry, the Law and Human Rights
Ministry and the Central Elections Commission [KPU] will arrive in Papua
next week to monitor the registration process,” he said.
Dozens
of Cendrawasih University students staged a rally at the DPRP, calling
it unconstitutional for the DPRP to deal with the registration process.
Benyamin
Gurik, one of the protesters, said that the DPRP’s involvement was not
justified and the law only stipulated the KPU as the election organizer.
Papua’s election has been delayed for a year with the
indigenous issue having impeded progress. Some critics blamed the delay
on caretaker Governor Syamsul Arief Rivai, who was appointed in July but
whose capabilities in the job have been questioned. The same critics
demanded that a replacement for him be sought.
Before the
announcement of the registration for the governor and deputy hopefuls,
the Papuan Lawmaker Caucus chairman, Paskalis Kossay, previously said
that the caucus was disappointed with the acting governor’s performance,
and complained about the absence of a fixed schedule for the
gubernatorial election.