Election delay requested in Aceh
Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The provincial administration of Aceh and the legislative council have proposed to the central government that regional elections in the tsunami-hit province be delayed until October.
Ministry of Home Affairs' Director General for Regional Autonomy Progo Nurdjaman said on Friday that the October time frame was jointly proposed by acting Aceh governor Azwar Abubakar, Aceh local council and the local office of the Independent Election Monitoring Committee (KIPP).
"I met all of Aceh's political figures when I went there recently. They proposed to the central government holding the regional elections across Aceh simultaneously on Oct. 25, from the initial schedule of May this year," Progo said.
"We are currently preparing the (central government's) response to the proposal," Progo said.
According to government data, at least 11 regencies and three mayoralties in Aceh will elect new administration leaders this year. An election to pick a new governor for the province should also be held soon as the current governor, Abdulah Puteh, besides being suspended due to his corruption conviction, will end this term in November.
Eleven provinces and 215 regencies and mayoralties throughout the country will hold elections for new governors, mayors and regents in June.
But a number of regions and experts have called on the central government to delay the June regional elections -- which will be the first direct elections of regional leaders -- due to various reasons, including budget and time constraints.
The government has also issued a regulation in lieu of law in response to the Constitutional Court's annulment of several articles of Law No. 32/2004 on regional administrations. The new ruling allows for possible delays in regional elections in regions experiencing security disturbances and natural disasters.
An analyst previously suggested that the central government delay regional elections in Aceh for over five years, pending the complete rehabilitation and reconstruction of the tsunami-hit region.
Meanwhile, amid debate about servicemen participating in regional elections, Indonesian Military (TNI) Headquarters will officially announce early next week the names of members who have been approved to run in elections.
"The TNI chief (Gen. Endriartono Sutarto) is processing the list of servicemen who have requested to be allowed to run in elections, and we will officially announce their names to the public next Tuesday at the latest," TNI information officer Col. A. Yani Basuki told The Jakarta Post.
Based on preliminary TNI data, several middle-ranking military officers have requested Endriartono approve their participation in regional elections.
One military contestant is the current TNI head of information and data processing Col. DJ Nachrowi, who has requested that he be made non-active from his structural job to enable him to run in the regental election in Ogan Ilir regency in Palembang, South Sumatra.
"I am awaiting approval from the TNI chief of whether or not I can proceed with the regental election, which will take place on June 25," Nachrowi told the Post.
Nachrowi is being backed by three major political parties: Megawati Soekarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), Rachmawati Soekarnoputri's Pioneer Party and Gen. (ret) Eddy Sudrajat's Indonesian Justice and Unity Party (PKPI).
"I will compete with three other candidates," Nachrowi said.