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No postponement for 2024 regional elections: Govt, lawmakers
The Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) suggests that the voting day for the regional elections, slated for next November, to be postponed citing security concerns around the presidential inauguration in October.
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The headquarters of the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) in Jakarta. (Antara/Ali Khumaini)
The government and lawmakers have dismissed a fresh proposal from the country’s election supervisor to delay regional elections next year because of security concerns.
Indonesia is gearing up to hold general and regional elections in the same year for the first time in history. The presidential and legislative elections are slated for Feb. 14, while the voting day for the regional leaders is scheduled for Nov. 27.
The regional elections were originally scheduled for 2022 and 2023, but were pushed back after an agreement between the government and the House of Representatives not to revise the law that stipulates holding simultaneous regional elections in 2024. More than a hundred regional leadership posts were already vacant last year and many more will be by the time the regional leaders’ terms are up this year.
But the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) raised the idea of postponing the November voting day, citing security concerns surrounding the local elections across the country. Bawaslu chairman Rahmat Bagja conveyed the proposal during a meeting with the Office of Presidential Staff (KSP) on Thursday.
“We’re worried because the November voting day will be held close to the presidential inauguration in October,” Rahmat said, adding the series of events would add challenges to managing security during the regional elections.
The government quickly dismissed the suggestion as “irrelevant”, as said by Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Mahfud MD. He asserted that the government had pledged to help ensure the safety of the elections and the security would not be a concern “as long as organizers were willing to put in serious efforts.”
“If we always put fear and concerns first, there would never be elections,” Mahfud said on Saturday, as quoted by tempo.co. “These issues have always existed since long ago and we have the necessary instruments to resolve them.”
