House to Form Team to Select Constitutional Justice Candidates

Jakarta, Feb 19 (Antara) - The House of Representatives (DPR) will soon set up a team that will be in charge of selecting constitutional court justice candidates and will conduct an initial assessment test. "We have decided to form a five-member selection team that will conduct the initial phase of a fit and proper test on the constitutional court justice candidates. If the results are as per expectations, the names will be handed over to the House Commission III," Taslim Chaniago, a member of the House Commission III stated at the parliament building here on Wednesday. The team will be formed before February 24, he remarked. However, the House Commission III has yet to finalize the names of the people, who will be part of the selection team, he added. He has proposed the names of several noted figures such as senior lawyer Adnan Buyung Nasution, national figure Syafii Maarif, and former chairman of the Constitutional Court Mahfud MD to be part of the team. The team for electing the constitutional court justices will be formed in a manner that it avoids any intervention from political parties, he claimed. Therefore, he emphasized that the team will constitute academicians, social figures, and other credible persons. A number of figures who have been widely tipped off to be potential constitutional court justices are Dr Sugianto, SHm, MH, who is a lecturer at the School of Law at the Syekh Nurjati State Institute of Islamic Studies in Cirebon, West Java, and Dr Wahiduddin Adams, SH., MA, who formerly worked for the Law and Human Rights Ministry. (*) (S012/INE/H-YH) Reporting by Imam Budilaksono EDITED BY INE