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t seems Aburizal Bakrie and not his adversary Agung Laksono, may have had the last laugh after the Jakarta Administrative Court decided on Monday to invalidate a ministerial decree that recognized the leadership of Agung within the Golkar Party.

The court, however, stopped short of acknowledging Aburizal as the legitimate representation of the party. This may cause his game plan for the upcoming simultaneous regional elections scheduled for December to crumble.

The immediate response of the General Elections Commission (KPU) to the court ruling was to wait for a final and legally binding decision from the Supreme Court that would resolve the protracted internal conflict dividing the second largest party once and for all. Alternatively, the KPU says, the party should resolve its own squabbling.

Relying on the Supreme Court will be too risky, not for Aburizal or Agung, but for Golkar and perhaps the nation. Any party aspiring to compete in 269 regional elections will have to complete all necessary administrative requirements by July 28, just over two months from now. Without court validation neither camp within Golkar will be allowed to name its candidates.

Even if the much-awaited verdict is issued before July 28, Golkar will lack time to select candidates and consolidate grass roots and financial support for them.

Can we imagine local elections without Golkar, which has won so many regency, mayoral and gubernatorial posts in the past? Rival parties or those who maintain resentment for the New Order political machine from the past may welcome the KPU'€™s strict adherence to legal certainty, but the political aspirations of millions of people will find no outlet and that constitutes a failure of democracy.

Our hard-won democracy gave birth to a new Indonesia, marked with free and fair elections, in which all parties, regardless of their New Order roots, are given an equal chance. Regional elections, which have been held under the one-man-one-vote mechanism since 2005, carry the same spirit of equality to realize the true governance of, by and for the people.

Golkar, through the Red and White Coalition, has also attempted to persuade President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo to support a revision of the Regional Elections Law so as to assist the party, but to no avail. We understand the President'€™s reservations, because a law cannot be amended only to fulfill the interests of a certain group. Besides, the law was only amended in February to reinstate the one-man-one-vote mechanism.

While legal and political settlements look likely to rescue Golkar from the quandary, reconciliation is the only feasible option for the party to participate in the regional elections. As one of the oldest parties Golkar needs to show to other parties the maturity that has helped it survive sweeping political changes in the country and get through internal disputes in the past.

This choice must be difficult for both Aburizal and Agung to accept, but the party will face another split if they refuse to make compromises. They must be part of the solution, not the problem.