Divorces likely to rise after polls

Indra Harsaputra ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Gresik   |  Wed, 10/15/2008 10:36 AM  |  East Java

Next year's costly legislative election is likely to lead to an increase in the number of divorces among politicians in the province, a district religious court official says.

Gresik District Religious Court spokesman Sulaiman said the failure by many local politicians to win seats in the legislature at the national and regional levels could have a negative impact on their family life.

This is because, as demonstrated by the 2004 legislative elections, the democracy fiesta would cost them too much, he said.

Legislative candidates must pay a large sum of money to be nominated by a political party. This sum excludes the amounts spent on their campaign teams and party supporters.

"A greater number of candidates will lose because of the limited number of seats available," Sulaiman said after the divorce trial of a local politician here Tuesday.

Spending large sums of money, he added, could lead to economic problems in the politicians' families, which could in turn lead to polygamy and domestic violence, thus creating disharmony and possibly causing divorce.

He added that after the 2004 general elections, contested by members from 24 political parties, many politicians got divorced because of economic problems caused by not winning a seat in the election.

"The number of divorce cases can increase significantly at this time because more than 4,000 legislative candidates from 38 political parties are locked in a fierce race for a limited number of seats," he said.

He said many candidates had sold their main assets to fund their election campaigns, and most divorce cases were difficult to settle peacefully for numerous reasons.

Many wives, he said, filed for divorce in the religious court because they could not endure being repressed by a husband who spent most of his time away from home and had extramarital affairs.

Examples of the problem include Probolinggo regent Hasan Aminuddin, Gresik councilor Nur Golib and many other public officials and politicians whose involvement in politics led to marital problems.

Nur Golib is in custody at the Banjarsari prison for domestic violence.

"We have to detain Nur Golib because of the domestic violence he has committed against his wife," Gresik chief prosecutor Pathorahman said.

The tension between Golib and his wife Umi was triggered by the former's extramarital relationship with a local dangdut singer, who demanded they get married when she became pregnant.

According to data from the provincial religious affairs office, Surabaya has the highest number of divorces, compared with other major cities such as Jakarta, Bandung, Semarang, Makassar and Medan.

Between 2000 and 2007, there were 48,373 divorces in Surabaya, 30,900 in Bandung, 39,083 in Semarang and 5,193 in Jakarta.

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