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.