Electoral procedures hamper public participation

Electoral procedures hamper public participation

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

It is unlikely that people will be able to change the result of
the gubernatorial election due to the standard electoral
procedures.

However, people can lodge a complaint against the elected
officials if they suspect that money politics took place.

The set procedures give the impression that the public is
invited to take part in the election process, but in reality
public participation is not applicable.

"Don't expect too much from public scrutiny as it will won't
change anything. The procedures and requirements are designed to
make it impossible to prove anything," Indria Samego, a political
analyst from the National Institute of Sciences (LIPI), said.

On the two days following the election, only a few councillors
were seen inside the City Council building. The council has not
publicized the procedures for public screening and there is no
room or desk set up or any officials tasked to receive public
complaints.

Ibnu Soemantri, the deputy chairman of the electoral
committee, said that as of Friday, the committee had only
received one complaint about money politics, but it was deemed
invalid because it had not been filed by a leader of an
organization and it lacked sufficient proof.

The complaint, filed by Sutawidhya, a resident of Jakarta who
was running for vice governor, was based on a newspaper report.

According to electoral procedures, the public has three days
to lodge objections against the governor and vice governor after
they are elected. Since the third day falls on Saturday, the
deadline has been extended to Monday.

"The public is given a month to complain about the results of
the election, but I don't think anything will come of it as I
doubt the councillors have the political will to seriously
investigate the matter," Indria said, adding that it was unlikely
that a councillor who received a bribe or the one who offered it
would confess.

The election procedures say that public scrutiny of the
elected governor is limited to the suspicion of money politics
being applied before, during or after election day. The report
should be given to the election committee by leaders of
organizations registered in the city administration.

The committee would follow up with a public report on the
alleged practice of money politics if there was strong enough
evidence to back it. The allegation would be considered valid if
the election committee later received a confession from more than
one councillor admitting that they took bribes and from the
elected governor or vice governor that they offered bribes.

If money politics is proven, the election process would be
annulled and the pair could not be reelected.

Indria said that the difficulty in proving money politics was
not only due to the short period and the complicated procedures,
but also a lack of seriousness from the councillors in responding
to public reports.

Similar comments came from the chairwoman of the Urban Poor
Consortium (UPC) Wardah Hafidz, who said the City Council was
only paying lip service by inviting public participation.

Wardah, however, called on the public to use this channel if
they had evidence that money politics played a role in the
election.

A similar comment also came from the chairman of the Betawi
Assembly (Bamus Betawi), Abdul Syukur, who said that the
assembly, together with its supporting organizations, would
investigate all reports made by the public about money politics
in the election.