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View all search resultsPDI-P stands with voters against indirect polls
The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) has become the only party to formally oppose scrapping direct regional elections in the House of Representatives, pushing back against the ruling coalition’s plan while acknowledging the need to curb soaring election costs by other effective means.
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A woman dips her finger in ink after casting her vote on Nov. 27, 2024, during the simultaneous regional elections, at a polling station in Surabaya, East Java. (AFP/Juni Kriswanto)
T
he Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) has become the only party to formally oppose scrapping direct regional elections, pushing back against the ruling coalition’s plan while acknowledging the need to curb soaring election costs by other effective means.
On the final day of its three-day national meeting in Ancol, North Jakarta, the party made clear its rejection of transferring the power to elect governors, mayors and regents to regional legislative councils (DPRD), with party chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri saying it would strip voters of their rights.
“The PDI-P firmly rejects any discourse on electing regional heads indirectly through local legislatures,” Megawati said in her closing speech on Monday, according to a statement from the party.
“Indirect regional head elections contravene popular sovereignty and the spirit of the 1998 Reform movement, and, most fundamentally, take away the people’s democratic right to directly determine their own leaders,” she said.
The chairwoman of the quasi-opposition party further said the proposal floated by pro-government parties would not only mark a “setback for democracy, but also violate the Constitution”. She then cited a 2025 Constitutional Court ruling that reinforced articles in the Constitution on democratically elected regional heads.
“The ruling stressed that the people’s sovereignty in electing regional leaders must not be reduced to a closed and elitist representative mechanism,” Megawati said, adding that the ruling was final and binding.
The party’s firm stance makes it the only one of all eight parties in the government-controlled House of Representatives to reject the idea of returning to indirect regional elections, which were the norm during the three-decade authoritarian New Order regime under Soeharto, former father-in-law of President Prabowo Subianto.
