Councillors welcome bill on direct gubernatorial election

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.