Differences over election system delay bill approval
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Despite the unanimous agreement among all factions of the House of Representatives to adopt the open-list, or directly proportional, system of general elections, major factions still have their own version of the system based on their political clout, and are thus delaying the House's approval of the elections bill.
The adoption of the open-list system will allow voters to choose individual legislative candidates to represent their interests at the House.
The largest faction, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), which won strong support in highly populous regions like Java and Bali during the last general elections, demanded that the open-list system be applied at the provincial level.
Under this system, the party could ensure that it would still collect a significant number of votes from outside Java.
Meanwhile, the Golkar Party, the second largest at the House, wanted the system to be implemented at the regental and mayoral levels, which would ensure the collection of more seats from regencies outside Java.
In the last election, Golkar received strong support from voters outside Java, particularly those in eastern Indonesian regions.
Meanwhile, the United Development Party (PPP) and the National Awakening Party (PKB), respectively the third and fourth largest factions, preferred to implement the open-list system as originally proposed by the government at the sub-provincial level for Java and Bali and at the provincial level for all other areas.
The different stances of the major parties have thus prolonged deliberations on the long overdue bill, and the House has decided to move their meeting from the House to Hotel Horison in Ancol, North Jakarta, to continue deliberating.
They expect to complete their debate by the end of this week, and to approve the election bill at a plenary meeting on Feb. 11, instead of on Friday as scheduled.
PKB faction chairman Ali Masykur Musa said that the result of debate at Horison would be brought for further deliberation by the special committee from Monday to Friday next week.
Whatever the final result of the debate, political analysts say it would still be a progress toward democracy, as Indonesian citizens would no longer elect a party, but an individual candidate.
Political analysts Kusnanto Anggoro of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and Saldi Isra of the Padang-based Andalas University in West Sumatra praised the progress in the election bill debate.
Saldi cautioned, however, that the new electoral system would weaken the power of the executive board of political parties to determine the candidates for legislative bodies.
He believes the adoption of the open-list system could prevent past bad practices, in which only those candidates close to party leaders would have a legislative seat.
The new open-list system would also avoid problems of misrepresentation, whereby a legislator would falsely represent a regency not his own.
"The open-list system ensures true representation," Saldi added.