A few more months matter

A few more months matter

New uncertainty has clouded the build up to local elections,
which will allow the people to directly elect their governors,
mayors and regents from this June onward.

As election time approaches, the Constitutional Court last
week issued a verdict regarding Law No. 32/2004 on Local
Governments, particularly articles that affect the convening of
local elections.

The verdict came too late, considering the time left for
election preparations, but better late than rely on inadequate
legal grounds.

In this case, the court was right to annul a number of
paragraphs that are considered not consistent with each other, or
with the 1945 Constitution -- although the argument of being
inconsistent with the Constitution is far less convincing.

The court's verdict opens the field to more competition by
allowing a coalition of small political parties, which jointly
collected 15 percent of the vote in the general election but lack
even a seat on the local council to nominate a candidate for
governor, mayor or regent. Thus the decision allows independent
candidates to run for public office through these small parties.

The verdict also aligns the accountability mechanism of the
KPUD, which according to the court should be answerable to the
public, and not to local legislative councils or DPRD. Here, we
share the opinion of the court that making the KPUD answerable to
the DPRD would pose a serious conflict of interests, considering
that political parties inside the DPRD are the ones who nominate
the candidates. However, it is still not clear as to how the KPUD
can be accountable to the public.

The next part of the verdict, however, is somewhat
controversial. The court refuses to annul a number of articles as
demanded by the plaintiffs -- 21 KPUDs and a number of non-
governmental organizations. The articles in questions all deal
with a government regulation governing local elections, which
according to the plaintiffs could open the door for the
government to intervene in local elections.

Judging from the content of the verdict, it could be said that
the verdict is a kind of compromise. It is a compromise in so
much as it meets the demands of the plaintiffs, yet refuses to
jeopardize the schedule of the local elections. Nevertheless,
further discussion of the court verdict would make the verdict no
less final. No one can appeal against the decision of this
superpower Constitutional Court. Next, let's look at the
consequence of this verdict.

The first consequence would be all legal matters. The
government, for example, needs to provide the legal basis for
coalitions of small parties, which gained 15 percent of the vote
but have no DPRD seats, to nominate their candidates. The
government also needs to adjust prevailing regulations, including
Government Regulation No. 6/2005, particularly articles governing
the accountability of KPUDs. These things could be settled fairly
quickly.

A consequence more keenly felt by small political parties and
prospective independent candidates would be the limited time --
barely less than three months -- they have to ready themselves
for contesting the elections. In this regard, they are seriously
disadvantaged, compared to big parties such as Golkar and the
Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) that have had far
more time up their sleeves to prepare. Golkar, for example, has
established campaign teams for its candidates in many regencies.
Some of them have even begun to conduct veiled campaigns.

For this reason, the government -- or any party that has the
power at their disposal -- should postpone the local elections,
slated for this June, for another few months, to give small
parties and independent candidates breathing room and the chance
to prepare. Postponing the elections would also be beneficial for
KPUDs, who have numerous tasks to complete prior to the
elections. In fact, many KPUDs, including those who filed the
case with the court, have also requested breathing space.

If the elections go ahead as planned, of 226 local elections
to be held this year, 178 would be staged in June alone,
including to elect six governors (West Irian Jaya, Jambi,
Bengkulu, Central Kalimantan, South Kalimantan and North
Sulawesi).

If all of the responsible parties are not ready to conduct the
elections, and most of all, the people are not well informed
about their choices, what is the hurry? It is only the big
parties that have good reason for wanting to go ahead at full
steam. Moreover, we might end up selecting the wrong candidates.
Better that we wait until the time is ripe for selecting
tomorrow's leaders.