TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search resultsInterfaith group comes out against abolishing direct regional elections
People must be given as much space as possible to elect their governors, mayors or regents, says interfaith and pro-democracy group Gerakan Nurani Bangsa (GNB).
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
A local poll administrator (KPPS) shows the ballot during vote counting for the Jakarta gubernatorial election at a polling station in Jakarta on Nov. 27, 2024. (Reuters/Ajeng Dinar Ulfiana)
A
group of prominent interfaith and pro-democracy figures has opposed a controversial plan raised by President Prabowo Subianto’s coalition to abolish direct regional elections.
The group, called Gerakan Hati Nurani Bangsa (National Conscience Movement), made the statement on Tuesday, addressing concerns about the proposal to strip voters of the right to vote for governors, mayors and regents and to transfer the power to elect regional heads to regional legislative councils (DPRD).
All seven pro-government political parties in the House of Representatives have thrown their weight behind the proposal to roll back direct elections, which have been in place since 2005 as part of the reforms and decentralization process instituted after the 1998 fall of the authoritarian New Order regime. The quasi-opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) is the only party in the House that has rejected outright the ruling coalition’s plan to reinstate indirect polling used during the three-decade long New Order era.
“People must be given as much space as possible to elect their regional heads [in a right that] is mandated by the Constitution,” said group member, interfaith activist Alissa Wahid who is the daughter of late president Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid.
Their opposition to indirect local elections mirrors broader public sentiment, with the latest survey from Litbang Kompas, the research arm of Kompas newspaper, recording overwhelming support for maintaining direct polling.
Read also: Indonesians oppose indirect regional polls
The survey released on Monday found that 77.3 percent of respondents said they preferred direct regional elections over the old indirect polling. The figure far exceeds the 5.6 percent who favored having their leaders chosen by regional legislatures.
