Muhammad Nafik, Jakarta – After the hectic string of national and presidential elections, residents in the regions will be at the polls again with local direct elections scheduled for this year.
As many as 246 regions, including seven provinces, across Indonesia are set for local direct elections in 2010 amid a lack of preparation from agencies at the central and regional level.
The elections for governors, regents and mayors will be held simultaneously in seven provinces, 204 regencies and 35 municipalities beginning February, with many of them scheduled to take place by mid this year. More than 100 local elections were scheduled to be held last year, but were delayed due to the national legislative elections in April and the presidential poll in July. Security and efficiency issues were cited as the reasons for the postponement.
The government is set to streamline the elections this year claiming that simultaneous elections in one province could save more than Rp 100 billion, according to the financial administration management director general Timbul Pudjianto. A gubernatorial poll normally costs Rp 250 billion, but the amount could be reduced to Rp 156 billion if the elections for regents and mayors are organized simultaneously, Timbul told Kompas daily. The cost of elections for regents and mayors is close to Rp 20 billion, but could be reduced to Rp 11 billion if held on the same day as the gubernatorial poll, he added.
Some legislators and analysts have called on the government to extend the postponement of regional elections, citing weakened political stability and economic recovery in the wake of domestic political and legal problems and the global economic crisis. Holding the elections at such a time, they warned, could create conflict in regions. Critics have also said that chaos and disputes could arise from next year's local direct elections as they will be conducted under conflicting regulations. The government, they said, needed to synchronize conflicting regulations to avoid unnecessary problems from arising. However, the central government has insisted on pressing ahead with plans for the 246 local elections.
Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi argued that any further delays would violate the 2004 Law on Regional Administration unless it was reviewed by the government and the House of Representatives. The law requires that regional administration heads be elected every five years.
The prevailing regulations related to local elections include the 2004 Law on Regional Administration and the 2007 law on Elections Administration. The 2004 law allows the Home Ministry to coordinate local elections, while the 2007 law authorizes the General Elections Commission (KPU) to oversee all national and regional polls. The 2004 law also requires voters to punch ballot papers instead of ticking them as stipulated under the 2007 law. In the general and presidential elections held earlier last year, voters were required to tick the ballot papers. The 2004 law also stipulates that local elections be held in stages and must begin six months before the incumbent administration heads end their five-year terms, but the 2007 law states the stages must begin eight months prior. The government and the KPU are currently undecided which law should apply.
There are also fears that local election bodies are not yet prepared for upcoming elections in their respective regions, which may cause irregularities and possible disruptions in administrating the polls. Furthermore, the upcoming regional elections are expected to see renewed conflicts over the electoral roll. The KPU has decided to use the electoral roll used in the July presidential election as the preliminary list of voters for the upcoming local direct elections, citing regulations from the 2004 law that allows the use of data from previous elections. However, the electoral roll used for the presidential election was widely criticized and rejected by some political parties for containing invalid and inaccurate data.
The nationwide fiasco over the controversial electoral roll sparked widespread accusations the KPU was "incompetent and unprofessional" in its organization of the legislative and presidential elections. With the KPU to coordinate local elections bodies (KPUD), many doubt that existing problems with the electoral roll will be solved in time for the regional elections.
A lack of accurate data on population and potential voters at local administrations could worsen the political situation ahead of, during, and following the local elections. Analysts say local election bodies (KPUD) across the country are currently unclear about how to draft the electoral roll for the upcoming regional elections. Under the 2004 law, the electoral roll is formed on the basis of existing population data at local administrations, while poll authorities may use the latest data on voters from the July presidential election.
Another serious problem likely to disrupt local elections is related to the transparent and accountable monitoring of the polls. Despite approaching election dates, election supervisory bodies have not yet been established in many regions, while the central Elections Supervisory Commission (Bawaslu) and the KPU are still divided over the rules and mechanism to be used to recruit and select members of local monitoring bodies.
The Bawaslu wants to reinstate the dissolved local monitoring bodies employed for the legislative and presidential elections to speed up and simplify the recruitment process. The proposal, however, was rejected by the KPU. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court recently issued an edict calling on local Bawaslu bodies to be established by regional legislative bodies as stipulated in the 2008 Law on Regional Administration.