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House to ensure Golkar, PPP participation
Designing democracy: House of Representatives Speaker Setya Novanto (third from left) and General Elections Commission (KPU) chairman Husni Kamil Manik (second from right) attend a meeting on the regional election bill at the House in Jakarta on Monday
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span class="inline inline-center">Designing democracy: House of Representatives Speaker Setya Novanto (third from left) and General Elections Commission (KPU) chairman Husni Kamil Manik (second from right) attend a meeting on the regional election bill at the House in Jakarta on Monday. Indonesia plans to hold 279 simultaneous regency, mayoral and provincial elections this year, and another 245 in 2018. JP/DON
As the Golkar Party and the United Development Party (PPP) seem incapable of ending their respective party infighting, the House of Representatives is set to revise existing laws on local elections as well as on political parties in order to allow both parties to participate in the upcoming local elections.
The decision was made after hours of closed-door meetings between senior House figures and the General Elections Commission (KPU) at the legislative building on Monday evening, which eventually saw the KPU agreeing to include all recommendations by lawmakers in the KPU's regulations on the local elections, after the commission had previously refused to do so.
The KPU had insisted on accepting only two of three recommendations proposed by House Commission II, which oversees governance, regional autonomy, state apparatus and agrarian affairs, for divided parties taking part in an election; namely the provision of an inkracht, or a final and binding court ruling regarding leadership or reconciliation and the submission of a peace agreement, signed by the respective factions, to the Law and Human Rights Ministry.
Weeks of intense lobbying by lawmakers eventually convinced the KPU to adopt the third point that would allow Golkar and the PPP to submit their latest court rulings on their leadership battles in order to enable them to register candidates to contest the 269 elections that will take place simultaneously throughout the country.
'That is one of the alternatives for [divided] parties,' KPU Commissioner Ida Budhiati said.
'We will officially include such a recommendation in our regulations as soon as we have the legal basis to do so through the revision of the laws [No. 8/2015 on local elections and No. 22/2011 on political parties],' she added.
The KPU will invite parties or coalitions of parties to register their nominated candidates from July 26 to 28. The commission will accept the Aburizal Bakrie faction of Golkar and the Djan Faridz faction of the PPP if the Jakarta State
Administrative Court (PTUN) fails to issue a ruling or if the rival factions within the parties fail to reconcile by the end of the registration period.
'That is the best solution to deal with ongoing legal battles [between factions within Golkar and the PPP] because it is neutral,' said House Deputy Speaker Fadli Zon.
House Commission II is expected to begin soon the deliberation to amend both existing laws as soon as it resumes sitting on May 18.
Commission II head Rambe Kamarulzaman insisted the discussions would not take long because of the urgency of the approaching registration process.
Last month, the PTUN suspended a decree by Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna H. Laoly that recognized Aburizal's rival, Agung Laksono as chairman of Golkar.
The PTUN is expected to announce its final ruling in the next 90 days after the decision, which upheld the challenge to the decree submitted by Aburizal.
The PTUN has also restored the PPP chairmanship to Djan Faridz after annulling a decree by Yasonna that recognized the leadership of Djan's rival, Muhammad Romahurmuziy last February. Yasonna has filed a legal challenge to the ruling.
Local leaders, meanwhile, have expressed concern over conflicts in regions as a result of the failure of party elites to resolve leadership disagreements.
'Clashes [between supporters of rival factions] have emerged in regions,' Sofyan Mile, regent of Banggai in Central Sulawesi, said during a national meeting involving local leaders from across the archipelago to discuss the preparations for local elections in Jakarta on Monday.
'Conflict between the elites will flow down to the grass roots. There will be widespread conflict if this happens,' he said, which was met with shouts of agreement from his colleagues attending the meeting.
The government is preparing all measures to anticipate conflicts that might occur during the first ever simultaneous elections that will be held on Dec. 9.
National Police chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti said that the police would deploy all resources to safeguard the elections, which have already cost the state almost Rp 7 trillion (US$ 538 million) in preparations.
