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Plan to return regional elections to DPRD lambasted
Experts and activists have rebuked the plan by the Red-and-White coalition, which is led by losing presidential hopeful Prabowo Subianto, to return the voting mechanism in regional elections from the current direct system back to vote counting at the Regional Legislative Councils (DPRD)
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xperts and activists have rebuked the plan by the Red-and-White coalition, which is led by losingpresidential hopeful Prabowo Subianto, to return the voting mechanism in regionalelections from the current direct system back to vote counting at the Regional Legislative Councils (DPRD).
Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem) executive director Titi Anggraini said on Friday that if the voting mechanism was returned to the DPRD, it would constitute a major setback to the country's burgeoning democracy.
The current election mechanism has been in the spotlight lately, as many blame direct elections for the existence of money politics, high-costs and the emergence of permanent conflicts.
Constitutional law expert Refly Harun, however, said that none of those arguments made sense.
'If the problem is high costs, then there are electoral management [solutions to consider], where we can bring down costs by having simultaneous elections,' he said. 'In terms of conflicts, I believe regional elections do not trigger permanent conflicts.'
Refly added that he was sure that money politics would be more rampant should the voting mechanism be returned to the DPRD.
'The problem with money politics is that there is no strong law enforcement,' he said.
The Red-and-White coalition plans to include such a voting mechanism in the draft bill on regional elections, expected to be ratified by the House of Representatives soon.
National Awakening Party (PKB) lawmaker Abdul Malik Haramain, who is a member of a working committee tasked with drafting the law on regional elections, said that the latest version of the draft contained three options.
'The first is that governors, regents and mayors [be elected by] direct elections. The second is indirect elections, while the third is a mixture between direct and indirect elections,' he told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
Malik added that the PKB fully supported the stance of president-elect Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo's coalition in pushing for regional heads to continue to be elected by direct voting.
'Democracy means people's power. If we drag regional elections into the DPRD, it means that we are distorting democracy,' he said. (dic)
