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House urged to simplify election laws
To ensure the success of future elections, a coalition of civil society groups advocating for better electoral standards has urged the House of Representatives to simplify existing election laws as one of its priority tasks in the 2016 National Legislation Program (Prolegnas)
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o ensure the success of future elections, a coalition of civil society groups advocating for better electoral standards has urged the House of Representatives to simplify existing election laws as one of its priority tasks in the 2016 National Legislation Program (Prolegnas).
To this end, Didik Supriyanto, chairman of the Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem) that spearheads the coalition, has asked the House Legislative Body (Baleg) on Tuesday to codify and merge the country's intricate set of election laws with hopes that it would resolve any overlapping or contradictory provisions.
'The election law [revision] should be prioritized in the deliberation of bills for next year,' Didik said at a meeting with Baleg in Jakarta, arguing that there were currently too many distinct laws that governed the preparation, hosting and resolution of general elections.
As a solution, Didik recommended merging Law No. 15/2011 on election organizers, Law No. 8/2012 on legislative elections, Law No. 42/2008 on presidential elections and Law No. 8/2015 on the revision of the election of regional heads, into one comprehensive regulation.
'If we codify [these laws], any future debates between the government and the House regarding elections will be focused solely on the electoral system, while all other aspects will have been resolved or need only be slightly improved upon,' he explained.
According to him, the House has passed a total of 12 laws that govern the electoral process between 2000 and 2015 alone, which have resulted in the emergence of three problems.
First, he says there are complications in the way elections are organized, as different standards are being used to regulate the aspects common in every kind of election, such as different methods for vote recapitulation.
The second issue, Didik continued, has to do with the inherent complexities of organizing an election. 'From the perspective of election organizers, the current election system is unmanageable, while from the voters' perspective, the election encourages irrational choices due to its multifaceted approach,' he said.
'For political parties and election candidates, the current election system foreshadows high political costs in campaigning.'
In terms of election results, Didik said the current system had resulted in a divided and unconnected government that had become ineffective both at the central and regional level.
Meanwhile, Baleg deputy chairman Firman Soebagyo of the Golkar Party said that the initial response of the coalition was positive, with several party factions convinced that the nation's election laws needed to be revised and codified.
'I think that [this is important] for the national interest, especially since studies have shown that our current system doesn't elect people based on competence, but on popularity; even popular candidates don't guarantee integrity,' he told reporters after the meeting with the coalition.
Firman vowed to propose the bill to the government once it accommodated all relevant input from experts, and would promote the importance of the bill before setting the 2016 Prolegnas priority bills.
Even so, Firman said that it would be next to impossible to pass such a bill by the end of this year ' which the coalition suggested would provide election organizers enough time to successfully promote and implement the law ' as it needs to go through a series of steps beforehand. 'The fastest we can [guarantee passing the bill] is in 2016.'
The House has been under constant pressure for its low performance since the beginning of its term. From the 37 priority bills that the House has planned to pass this year as part of the Prolegnas, legislators so far have only passed two bills: one on regional elections and the other on regional administrations.
It is also aiming to pass fewer bills this sitting period, citing other priorities such as consolidating the 2016 state budget proposal and preparing for the regional elections.
The coalition is made up of members of Perludem, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the Populi Centre and the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI).
