Job seekers need a police record check. Indonesia's legislative candidates do not

For millions of Indonesians, the police clearance certificate known as the SKCK (Surat Keterangan Catatan Kepolisian) is a routine hurdle. It is requested for civil service selection, for many private jobs and for some school applications, and it must be renewed regularly. For people who want to sit in the national or regional parliament, the rules are different.

What ordinary applicants face

Civil service applicants are usually asked for an SKCK during the later stages of selection rather than at registration, according to Liputan6 and Katadata's checklist of documents for the 2026 recruitment round. The certificate for civil service purposes is issued at district police (Polres), regional police (Polda) or national police headquarters, not at local police stations, and it is valid for six months from issue, guides citing the national police explain. Private employers decide for themselves whether to ask for one, and many do.

How the certificate is obtained

Applicants can start the process online through the national police's SKCK service and then complete it at the issuing office, guides published in 2026 explain. The documents usually include an identity card, family card, birth certificate or diploma and passport photos, and recent rules also ask for proof of active national health insurance (BPJS Kesehatan) membership, although the guides differ on when that requirement took effect. A certificate costs a modest fee and must be renewed before it expires, which for regular job seekers can mean repeating the process several times.

What legislative candidates file

When the General Elections Commission (KPU) issued its candidacy rule for the 2024 elections, KPU Regulation No. 10 of 2023, it dropped the direct requirement for candidates for the House and regional councils to submit an SKCK. Candidates instead submit a statement from a court confirming whether they have been convicted, RM.id reported from the KPU's public consultation, and Tirto described the absence of an SKCK requirement as one of the rule's controversial points. A KPU official quoted by RM.id said that, in practice, courts would not issue the statement without an SKCK first, so the police check still plays a role, but it is no longer one of the documents candidates hand to the KPU.

The change was criticised by researchers and civil society groups, who argued that a police certificate is a basic integrity check that voters expect, given that it is demanded of people applying for ordinary jobs.

Former convicts can stand after five years

A separate question is whether people with criminal convictions may run at all. In Decision No. 87/PUU-XX/2022, delivered on 30 November 2022, the Constitutional Court ruled that people convicted of crimes punishable by five years or more in prison may stand for the legislature only after five years have passed since they completed their prison term, and only if they openly disclose their record, Hukumonline and Jawa Pos reported. Before that ruling, disclosure alone was enough.

The court framed the waiting period as a compromise: political rights are restored, but not immediately, and voters must be told. Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) later argued that two KPU regulations, including the 2023 candidacy rule, were inconsistent with the court's rulings because of an exemption for convicts whose political rights had been revoked as an additional sentence, a reading the KPU disputed.

56 former corruption convicts on the ballot

ICW counted 56 former corruption convicts on the final candidate lists for the 2024 legislative elections: 27 running for the House of Representatives, 22 for provincial or district councils and 7 for the Regional Representative Council, ICW researcher Kurnia Ramadhana said, as reported by Bisnis.com. An earlier ICW tally of 49 covered only the House and regional councils, Katadata's Databoks noted.

ICW said the KPU had not done enough to tell voters which candidates had convictions, which the court's ruling requires candidates themselves to announce.

Why it matters

The contrast is not a contradiction in the law so much as a choice. Job applications are screened by employers who can ask for any check they like. Elections are screened by voters, and the law relies on disclosure rather than exclusion, after a waiting period. Whether that works depends on how visible a candidate's record actually is when people vote.

What we do not know

We have not found an official KPU count of former convicts among elected members after the 2024 vote, and the ICW figures cover candidates rather than winners. The 2023 regulation may be revised before the next election.