Analysts say governance reform is key to preventing corruption in regional elections

Public Policy Analyst at The Indonesian Institute (TII), Arfianto Purbolaksono, assessed that efforts to prevent corruption in the organisation of regional head elections (pilkada) need to focus on strengthening governance, oversight, and political system reform, not just through changes to the election mechanism. Speaking during an online dissemination discussion in Jakarta on Wednesday, Arfianto said that high political costs are indeed one of the challenges in pilkada. However, corrupt practices are also influenced by the integrity of state administrators, the effectiveness of supervision, and government governance. “Corruption will not necessarily decrease if the Pilkada is only conducted through the Regional People’s Representative Council (DPRD). This is because it is not only about expensive political costs, but also other factors such as oversight, the integrity of the regional head themselves, and even the central government,” Arfianto said. According to him, previous experience shows that money politics practices also occurred when regional heads were elected through the DPRD, so changing the election mechanism does not necessarily eliminate the potential for irregularities. Therefore, reform of campaign financing, transparency of the political process, and consistent oversight of all stages of the pilkada need attention. Arfianto also encouraged political parties to improve the cadre development and recruitment process for regional head candidates to prioritise capacity, integrity, and democratic mechanisms. “Internal reform of parties is needed to encourage potential cadres to compete in regional head elections in a democratic and accountable manner,” he said. In agreement, Populi Center Researcher Dimas Ramadhan assessed that the problems of corruption and money politics can occur in both direct election systems and through the DPRD, so the solution is not simply changing the election mechanism. “The election mechanism does not solve the problem of corruption or vote buying and so on. But the clear fact is that money politics, corruption, and so on occur in both systems. In the direct election system and the closed election system via the DPRD, there are transactions there,” Dimas said. He added that improving the quality of pilkada must be accompanied by improving the governance of political parties through sustainable cadre development, transparent candidate selection, and accountable organisational management. Meanwhile, Political Science Lecturer at the Jakarta Veterans National Development University, M. Busyro Asmuni, assessed that strengthening internal party democracy is an important foundation for producing regional head candidates with integrity. “I think the first thing is the need to strengthen internal party democracy. How candidate selection is based on integrity,” Busyro said. In order to suppress the high political costs that often trigger corruption, Busyro also recommended the need for regulatory reform related to transparency of political funding. “I think it is indeed necessary to also push for a political party funding law. The state has the authority to correct, evaluate, how money comes in and out, so that political parties cannot be free,” he said. Furthermore, Busyro emphasised the importance of political education for the public through collaboration between educational institutions, civil society organisations, research institutes, and non-governmental organisations so that public participation in democracy is of higher quality to build a politically aware society.