O

ur democracy has remained a work in progress since the beginning of reformasi more than 17 years ago. Much has been done to develop the political system, including the election of leaders at national and regional levels.

The most recent conundrum of a single ticket in six out of 269 regions that will elect their leaders in the simultaneous polls slated for Dec. 9 has again prompted the nation to engage in experiments with its hard-won democracy, with all the risks entailed.

Calls have mounted for President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo to sign a government regulation in lieu of law (Perppu) that would allow elections in a number of regions to go ahead even though each has only one candidate, while the General Elections Commission (KPU) has insisted that the polls in those regions should be postponed until February 2017.

Either option, however, offers no conclusive solution. Delaying elections in some regions would deprive voters the right to elect their leaders, albeit temporarily, and waste billions of rupiah in taxpayers'€™ money allocated for regional poll commissions to prepare the elections. A postponement would also disrupt the national agenda of amalgamating national and local elections, which are expected to save the state budget and minimize vote-buying practices.

A single ticket, on the other hand, is a worse choice as it betrays the principles of democracy. The absence of competition will prevent voters from selecting the best candidate.

With more than 80 regions having only two tickets registered for the race, there is a possibility for uncontested elections to happen if one of the tickets fails to pass administrative screening.

The two unwanted options reached the table after the KPU extended the candidate registration dateline to Aug. 11 at 4 p.m. from the original deadline of Aug. 3. By the close of registration on Tuesday, the single candidate phenomenon in the cities of Mataram and Samarinda and the regencies of Pacitan, Tasikmalaya, Blitar and Timor Tengah Utara remained unsolved. Surabaya managed to settle the quandary after the pair of Rasiyo and Dirham Abror, nominated by the Democratic Party and the National Mandate Party (PAN), registered with the local poll body to challenge incumbent Risma Trimaharini and her deputy Wisnu Sakti Buana.

Many suspect that certain political parties, knowing they will lose anyway, are boycotting the Dec. 9 regional elections just to buy time to better prepare themselves.

At least we can learn a lot from the conundrum. The issue of a single ticket can theoretically happen in the presidential election and our legislation does not anticipate such anomaly.

Revision of the legislative, presidential and regional election laws is therefore needed. A single ticket standing for office can be accommodated, but voters must be given a choice to reject them, as happened in many village chief elections in the past. This way they would not be deprived of their constitutional right.

If India respects those who vote for '€œnone of the above'€, Indonesia, the world'€™s third-largest democracy, could follow suit.