Councillors welcome bill on direct gubernatorial election

Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Councillors welcomed Saturday the recently proposed bill by the House of Representatives (DPR) which will revise Law No. 34/1999 on the Jakarta Administration, and apply a direct gubernatorial election system.

Interviewed separately by The Jakarta Post, councillors Ugiek Sugihardo of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) and Abdul Aziz Matnur of the Justice Party (PK) viewed it as a chance, although slim, to get a new governor through a direct election.

"It would be feasible if the recent gubernatorial election results are annulled due to allegations of money politics. We could hold a direct election next year as stipulated in the bill," Ugiek said.

However, he doubted that the central government would fulfill people's aspirations by annulling the election results and appointing a caretaker governor who would prepare for the direct election.

Councillors and non-governmental organizations protested the recent election, alleging that is was tarnished by vote-buying.

Aziz agreed that the current indirect election, which was determined only by 84 councillors, was marred by money politics.

"With a direct election, gubernatorial candidates will not be able to pay millions of Jakarta voters," Aziz said.

Two gubernatorial candidates, Mahfudz Djaelani and Endang Darmawan allegedly attempted to buy votes. Mahfudz paid Rp 200 million as a down payment of a total Rp 2 billion to 40 councillors while Endang allegedly gave 10 cheques worth Rp 450 million each to the National Mandate Party (PAN) faction at the council.

The House proposed the bill last week, saying that Jakarta residents in comparison to other people in the country, were ready for direct elections.

The proposed bill would replace Article 16 (1) of Law No. 34/1999 which states that the city governor and deputy governor are elected by the City Council.

The bill, which is expected to be approved later this year, proposes that the direct election be conducted by at least May next year and the elected governor could be installed in June to coincide with the city anniversary.

Several factions at the House, such as the National Awakening Party (PKB) and the Reform faction, which initiated the bill, agreed with the proposal of next year's direct election but some factions, including the Indonesian Military (TNI)/National Police faction, rejected it.

Although they agreed on a direct gubernatorial election, the TNI/Police faction feared that the bill would cause problems for Sutiyoso who was recently elected for his second five-year term.

However, according to the bill, the nomination of candidates was still to be decided by the City Council, as in Article 16 (2) of the current law.

It means that only candidates from political parties would be allowed to be nominated by the council. It will block wider public participation or independent candidates from participating in the election.

Activist Azas Tigor Nainggolan of the Jakarta Residents Forum was of the opinion that politicians still wanted to dominate the process by deciding the gubernatorial candidates. "The election should be conducted by an independent election commission. It should be open to public participation," he said.