New faces for Indonesia's parties

By Lucy Williamson
BBC News, Jakarta

Midnight is the deadline for Indonesia's political parties to put forward their candidates for next year's parliamentary elections.

A record 38 parties will contest the polls, each of which will put forward members ranging from established politicians to the newest faces.

Politics in Indonesia has opened up dramatically in the past 10 years, as a result of the move to democracy.

Many parties are using their nominees to add new flavour to their campaigns.

Political shake-up?

It is a striking message when parties plump for pop stars over politicians. Indonesian politics, it seems, is no longer only a game for old men, nor even just for existing politicians.

The lists of would-be MPs trickling into the election commission show all the signs of wanting to be the freshest thing on the menu.

As well as including more women - a new law says they must make up at least a third of candidates - party lists appear to be getting younger.

The biggest faction in parliament, Golkar, truly the grand old man of Indonesian politics, says 90% of its candidates are under 60.

The slick and well-organised Muslim party, the PKS, says 80% of its list is under 45 and almost half its people are contesting an election for the first time.

Most major parties fall somewhere in between.

Change has become an important message. It worked in local elections this year and is setting the tone for the national polls too.

For a start, the old politics and politicians have been tainted by all the usual complaints - high prices, failure to deliver - but most of all by corruption.

Just this week, the Corruption Eradication Commission began gathering evidence for a fresh case after a serving MP confessed to a corruption scandal to the media.

Six MPs have been investigated so far this year and in the past few weeks, allegations have been made against more than 50 others, including two members of the cabinet.

Perhaps that explains another feature of the new parliamentary lists - a growing number of celebrities. Ageing rock stars, actresses from popular TV serials and comedians are all making an appearance.

They make up less than 5% of most party lists, but they are high profile - and most are not yet sullied by politics.