Home Minister Tito Karnavian inaugurated Achmad replacing Nova Iriansyah, whose five-year term in office started in 2017. The inauguration of Achmad, who was Aceh’s military command (Pangdam) chief in 2020, took place in the province’s Representative Council building in its capital of Banda Aceh on Wednesday.

During the inauguration, Tito said that Achmad had gone through a thorough vetting process, which included input from other Cabinet members and Aceh’s representative council, and a final assessment from the President.

Tito said that one of the priority issues expected of Achmad was to aid the province’s COVID-19 pandemic handling as well as its economic recovery efforts, particularly for the province’s micro, small and medium enterprises.

A total of 101 regional leadership posts are falling vacant this year, including the Jakarta governorship in October, with a further 154 mayoralties and regency posts, and 17 governorships becoming vacant in 2023.

In May, the government installed five new acting governors for the provinces of Bangka Belitung, Banten, Gorontalo, West Sulawesi and West Papua, along with a host of other mayors and regents.

Read also: Observers decry non-transparent interim leader selection

Military involvement

The selection process of interim leaders has been heavily criticized, particularly concerning the lack of a clear-cut and transparent mechanism, as well as the recent appointments of former or current police and military figures.

Aside from Achmad, the government has also appointed former West Papua Police chief Paulus Waterpauw as the acting governor of West Papua, and military officer and head of the State Intelligence Agency’s (BIN) Central Sulawesi bureau Brig. Gen. Andi Chandra as acting regent of West Seram in Maluku.

Paulus retired in 2021, while Andi was still an active TNI officer when he was inaugurated.

Achmad, retired from the Army as recently as July 1. Within the span of one week after his retirement, he was appointed as a Home Ministry expert staffer, and Aceh Governor two days later.

Read also: Civil groups report Home Minister to ombudsman over interim regional heads

Legal battleground

The Constitutional Court said in its opinion, issued in late April, that the government needed to consider devising regulations with "measurable and clear mechanisms” to ensure adherence to democratic principles.

The regulation, the court said, should serve as a guideline for the 2016 Regional Elections Law, which authorizes the government to unilaterally appoint national and provincial echelon I officials, such as directors general and administrative secretaries, as interim leaders until the regional heads are elected in 2024.

The 2016 regulation also bans active military and police personnel from running for regional heads, but says nothing as to whether or not they can be appointed as interim heads.

The government has yet to publish any new regulation, but state officials, including Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Mahfud MD and former administrative and bureaucratic reform minister Tjahjo Kumolo – who recently died – had defended its selection process.

Citing the 2004 TNI law, they said that TNI and police personnel could be appointed as interim regional heads if they had been seconded to other state institutions.

Read also: Calls grow for ‘clear’ rules on acting regional heads

Skirting the law

Experts have warned that Achmad’s sudden repositioning from a military to a civil service position could set a bad precedent.

“Achmad’s case has shown that the government is aware that appointing a military figure is breaking the law. So this is just another effort to justify [the appointment of military figures] and to circumvent prevailing laws,” constitutional expert Feri Amsari said on Thursday.

He urged the government to refrain from similar efforts in the future, saying it could lead to a decline in public trust, since it directly undermined constitutional rulings.

Echoing Feri, Kahfi Adlan Hafiz from electoral watchdog the Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem) slammed the government’s decision to appoint Achmad, saying that Achmad’s appointment as an expert staffer at the Home Ministry was done only to give the impression that the government prefers civil servants as acting regional heads.

He said that this was unnecessary, particularly since there was no lack of qualified civil servants who have had long careers in their respective regional administrations.

“[Achmad] is only a civil servant formally. He was recently retired and given an echelon I position […] the government is just being crafty,” Kahfi said. “The law indicates that a civil servant with a long career in their position is preferred. That’s the spirit of the Reform era.”

Read also: Govt faces mounting criticism for tapping senior TNI official as interim regent