T

he government has insisted that concurrent regional elections take place in September this year, contrary to most political factions in the House of Representatives, which recently agreed to elections in 2016.

House Commission II overseeing governance and regional autonomy has argued that there is not enough time to prepare for quality elections.

Home Minister Tjahjo Kumolo said the government had decided on the House'€™s proposal in a plenary Cabinet meeting on Wednesday at the Presidential Office.

'€œThere are those who proposed that [the elections] be held in early 2016 [and those who proposed] it remain in 2015. However, the government still expects a consensus [among lawmakers] that [the elections] remain in 2015 because the KPU [General Elections Commission] is ready,'€ he said.

Tjahjo said the government was now waiting for an official proposal from the House should they want to press ahead with their plan.

An amendment to the Regional Election Law is expected to be debated on Feb. 17.

To ensure that financing and development programs in local areas would not be hindered by uncertainty, Tjahjo said President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo had ordered his ministry and the Law and Human Rights Ministry to continue communicating with the KPU and the House.

'€œThe Finance Ministry said that it fully supported [the elections in 2015],'€ Tjahjo added, saying that this year'€™s simultaneous local elections would be held in 204 areas in 10 provinces, as well as in some regencies and municipalities.

The House'€™s recent decision to move the elections to next year would be included on a list of amendments, Commission II'€™s working committee was examining measures that could be taken to regulate all local elections, he said.

According to Commission II, around 230 positions for governors, mayors and regents '€” which are expected to be vacant until the first half of next year, when the first concurrent elections are planned '€”would likely be temporarily filled by deputies or regional secretaries.

Commission II chairman Rambe Kamarulzaman said the next round of simultaneous local elections would be in 2017 and 2018, a year before the country holds a presidential election.

KPU commissioner Hadar Nafis Gumay said that local elections should ideally be held in April or May, since existing laws stipulate that regional elections should take place once every budget period.

'€œIf regional elections are held in April or May this year, they can be completed in the same year even if they have to be conducted in two rounds. The inauguration of the elected regional heads can take place in the same year as well,'€ he said as quoted by Antara news agency.

Hadar also said that if local administrations wanted to hold regional elections in February 2016, as had been proposed by most factions in the House, they would have to hold the initial stages of the elections this year or it would create budget-management problems.

Election watchdogs, such as the Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem), have expressed support for the House'€™s decision to move the elections to 2016.

Commission II'€™s working committee has also agreed to simplify a requirement concerning the public review of candidates to allow political parties or coalitions of political parties to take the lead in reviewing the candidates, which contradicts Article 38 of the 2015 law.