Political parties appeared to have secured a lock on regional administrations following the passage of the regional elections (Pilkada) law, which will vest Regional Legislative Councils (DPRDs) with the power to appoint local leaders.

In the early hours of Friday morning the House of Representatives passed the law by a vote of 226 to 135 to reinstate the mechanism that had been used during former president Soeharto'€™s New Order era.

Under the revived election mechanism political parties, through their representatives in the DPRDs, now have the mandate to form election committees (Panlih) that will initially select potential candidates.

The committees will later appoint an independent panel, comprising three academicians and two public figures, that will hold a public review, a mechanism that could be subject to control by the DPRD.

Those who have passed the panel'€™s public review will then be eligible for '€œelection'€ at the DPRD.

The law, which is slated to become effective in October 2015, also allows independent gubernatorial candidates to enter a race only if they are endorsed by at least 3 percent of the total population in an electoral area with a population of more than 12 million, 4 percent in an area with a population between 6 and 12 million, 5 percent of a population between 2 and 6 million and 6.5 percent in an area with a population less than 2 million.

Another article of the law states that elections will be held every five years concurrently across the country, while another stipulates that an election dispute must now be brought to local courts or the Supreme Court, automatically stripping the authority from the Constitutional Court, which is currently mandated to settle local-election disputes.

Lawmaker Hakam Naja, who chairs House Commission II overseeing regional administrations, argued that the new law would not be a stumbling block to public aspirations, saying that it had been drawn up in the best interests of the people, rather than to fulfil the ambitions of political parties.

• With passage of two laws, political parties now have effective control of regions
• SBY expresses disappointment at vote, activists vow to challenge law at Constitutional Court

'€œPublic aspirations will now be channeled through the DPRDs. Under this law, we can build a better democratic culture by urging the public to be more serious in engaging in legislative elections,'€ he said.

Andi Asrun, a lawyer who represented the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) in a judicial review related to House-leadership voting mechanisms, said on Friday that he would challenge the Pilkada law at the Constitutional Court, arguing the new election mechanism denied the people their right to vote.

Representing several individuals '€” including regents and workers '€” and survey organizations, Andi said he would file the case next Monday.

In Washington DC, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was quoted by the Cabinet secretariat website as saying '€œI am disappointed with the result and the political process at the House, although I respect the process as a Democrat [Democratic Party chairman]. But, once again, I am disappointed with the process and the result.'€

Less than 24 hours after they passed the Pilkada bill, the House also scrapped an article that barred a political party chairman from becoming a local leader in an amendment to the 2004 law on regional administrations, a move seen as an effort to strengthen the new indirect-election mechanism.

Perhaps surprisingly, the proposal was raised during the deliberation by politicians from two parties that had previously backed direct local elections, the National Awakening Party (PKB) and the PDI-P.

PKB lawmaker Abdul Kadir Karding, an executive on the PKB central board, said the issue should be an internal party matter. '€œThe democratic system that we are building, like it or not, is actually a regime of political parties,'€ he said. '€œ[Therefore] we must strengthen the parties.'€

Arif Wibowo of the PDI-P said '€œWe should give the same opportunity for everyone, including party executives [although] of course [we] hope that [he or she] will work for the best interests of the people and not to conduct wrongdoing.'€

The new regional administration law clearly gives the authority to DPRDs to elect and authorizes local heads to choose their deputies using the election mechanism laid down in the controversial new Pilkada law.

Unlike the Pilkada law, the regional administration law '€” which also grants the government the authority to take back power from local administrations '€” won unanimous support from lawmakers, although only around 60 lawmakers attended Friday'€™s deliberation session.

Home Minister Gamawan Fauzi told the plenary session after the deliberation that the law was a joint effort of both the government and the House to improve governance.

» Read also p2, 4

» Editorial p6

Popular

Power begins to return after outage in Indonesia's Bali island

'Devastated' Prince Harry says no UK return but seeks reconciliation

North Sumatra to investigate hot mudflow eruptions in Mandailing Natal