Camelia Pasandaran, Jakarta – The government proposes to eliminate direct gubernatorial elections and have provincial heads elected by the local legislative council, an official said on Thursday.
Reydo nnyzar Moenek, the Home Affairs Ministry spokesman, said the government has included the proposal in a draft law on regional elections to be soon submitted to the House of Representatives for deliberation.
"The draft has been finalized, but it is a proposal that will be discussed during the [next] cabinet meeting," Reydonnyzar said on Thursday.
Echoing the government's line, Reydonnyzar said one of the reasons for proposing a return to the past system – where governors were not directly elected but were elected by the provincial legislative council – was that holding direct gubernatorial elections have been too costly.
"Direct democratic [gubernatorial] elections have burdened the regional budgets," he said.
Government officials, including Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi, have in the past argued that governors were representatives of the central government in the regions and as such had seen their authority reduced under the decentralization drive. Hence, direct elections for them were no longer relevant.
Reydonnyzar said leaving the regional legislative councils, or DPRDs, to elect governors, was also a democratic way to fill positions, albeit indirectly. But he also added that "we are still open to advice."
Governors had previously been elected by DPRDs, but a 2004 law on regional elections mandated that they be elected through direct popular vote. Government officials have argued that besides being too costly, gubernatorial elections were also prone to trigger conflicts.
The International Crisis Group, in a recent report on regional elections in Indonesia, said there had been an increase in violence in regional elections.
Reydonnyzar said democracy should also take into account the high costs of elections.
"So the option is to return the election to the provincial DPRDs," he said. "Meanwhile, the mechanism for the district and municipal heads is still through people's direct election. This option has implications and we're studying it."
Arif Wibowo, a lawmaker from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said the government should come up with a clear rationale for the proposed change.
"The legitimacy is actually the same, but the government should have clear reasons regarding the efficiency or governor's authority," Arif said. He said elections by direct popular vote or by a legislative council was only a matter of "technical" difference and not a substantial one.
He added that before making any decision, the government should also consider that elections could be made cheaper by holding all provincial polls at the same time.
"If the only consideration is efficiency, then they should change it to all regional elections [being held] at one time, nationally."