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LIPI designs two batches of concurrent polls
New insights: Researchers of the newly founded Electoral Research Institute (ERI) Sri Yanuarti (left to right), Ikrar Nusa Bhakti, Sri Nuryanti, Mochammad Nurhasim and Syamsuddin Haris visit The Jakarta Post Thursday
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span class="inline inline-center">New insights: Researchers of the newly founded Electoral Research Institute (ERI) Sri Yanuarti (left to right), Ikrar Nusa Bhakti, Sri Nuryanti, Mochammad Nurhasim and Syamsuddin Haris visit The Jakarta Post Thursday. The new institute focuses on academic and electoral issues. JP/R. Berto Wedhatama
In an effort to improve the current electoral system, the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) is proposing two batches of simultaneous elections that separate polls for public office and those for representatives at the national and regional levels.
A group of researchers under LIPI's electoral research arm, the Electoral Research Institute (ERI), has designed a new system in which presidential and legislative elections are held in one round.
Two-and-a-half years after that, or half of the tenure of a president, the government can run a second batch of elections for seats at provincial and municipal representative councils (DPRDs) and regional heads.
The ERI, which was established in November last year under an agreement between the General Elections Commission (KPU) and LIPI, suggested that the system be implemented for the 2019 general election. The new electoral system design was made after the team reviewed last year's presidential and legislative elections.
'Those chosen for the DPRDs and governors and regents in the next local elections will have their tenures extended for two more years,' researcher Muhammad Nurhasim told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.
The House of Representatives recently agreed to move the schedule of the upcoming concurrent regional elections to December this year and next year.
Lawmakers from House Commission II overseeing governance, regional autonomy, state apparatus and agrarian affairs pushed back the elections to the end of this year to allow the KPU to organize quality elections.
Nurhasim argued that by separating national level and local elections, the public would be able to judge the government and House's performance before deciding on who to elect locally.
'Our research found that the public is still enthusiastic about electing a president and that voting in a legislative election is also rather easy. However, when it comes to local elections, voters are provided with limited information about the candidates and their work performance so they find it harder to choose,' he said.
The ERI also proposed that presidential and legislative elections be held simultaneously so that political parties would be forced to form coalitions at least two years before the next elections in 2019 so that they could decide on presidential candidates.
'This will ensure that the political party that has a majority in the House will also be the party that supports the president to ensure a stabler political environment,' Nurhasim said.
Fellow researcher Ikrar Nusa Bhakti added that the system would also encourage political parties with similar ideologies to form coalitions, instead of forming coalitions out of greed or revenge.
'We hope that this new system will encourage parties with the same ideologies to group together and that it results in a permanent coalition,' he said.
Researcher Syamsuddin Haris agreed and said there would be fewer political problems if coalitions were formed from the beginning as they would understand the risks.
'The current system is only time and money efficient, but we want to create an electoral system that produces the best result,' he said.
