The General Elections Commission (KPU) has recorded a total of 838 tickets standing for Pilkada to be organized late this year.
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - During the regional head elections scheduled on December 9, 2015, eligible voters should elect candidates having national insight, according to Chairman of the Peoples Consultative Assembly (MPR) Zulkifli Hasan.

"I hope the selected candidates would have national insight and are not individuals with vested interests keen to benefit their own groups," Hasan noted in a statement received here, Tuesday.

He claimed to have paid serious attention to the simultaneous regional head elections (Pilkada) since it will be an interesting phenomenon and would be the first democratic event to be held simultaneously across Indonesia.

Hasan also hoped that the simultaneous elections would make the nations democracy better.

The General Elections Commission (KPU) has recorded a total of 838 tickets standing for Pilkada to be organized late this year.

The 838 tickets comprise 21 pairs for gubernatorial candidates, 115 pairs for mayoral candidates, and 702 pairs for district head and deputy district head candidates.

The Indonesian government is scheduled to hold Pilkada on December 9, 2015, to elect governors in nine provinces, district heads in 224 districts, and mayors in 36 cities.

Indonesia has 34 provinces, 420 districts, and 94 cities. A province is headed by a governor, a district by a district head, and a city by a mayor, according to data published in early 2014.

The first round of the registration period for regional head candidates took place in 269 regions across Indonesia on July 26-28, 2015, and has run smoothly and peacefully, in general.

The second round was organized on August 1-3, 2015, in 13 regions having less than two tickets.

With elections being simultaneously held in several regions, the risk of conflicts erupting is high, particularly due to protests by those candidates failing in the race and suspecting irregularities in the implementation of the election process.

Therefore, several parties are applying pressure on the government and the KPU, in particular, to make improvements to prevent potential problems, including security issues.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2015