Govt recommends mixed electoral system

BANDUNG (JP): A combination of proportional representatives and first-past-the-post systems for next year's general election will likely reduce the influence of political parties and strengthen the accountability of elected representatives.

This is the rationale behind a plan to introduce a mixed system by a team of the Ministry of Home Affairs in drafting new electoral laws.

Djohermansyah Djohan, a member of the drafting team, said yesterday that with a plural district system, the role of party leaders would be lessened since elected members would be directly accountable to their constituents.

"Now seems to be the right time to limit the role of party leaders to the minimum. Parties should only be facilitators," Djohan said on the second day of a three-day regional seminar on Comparisons of Election Systems held by the Center for Information and Development Studies.

"This system would strengthen the regions' role (in national politics) because potential legislators would come from among local people," he said.

A reduction in the role of party leaders would mean they could not discriminately "discipline" their legislators, he added.

He recalled that legislators elected under the proportional representative system were subservient to the wishes of their party leaders and not to their constituents.

Legislators who did not toe the official party line were often "recalled" by their party leaders. Legislators were also not bound by the "domicile rule" as they did not actually have to reside in the district where they were elected, he said.

All this is likely to change with the draft electoral laws that are expected to be presented to the House of Representatives soon.

Djohan said that while the proportional representation system had its merits, people had become disillusioned with it because past elections "had been filled by undemocratic practices to ensure that Golkar gains an absolute majority".

He maintained that people in rural areas were familiar with a plural system because it was already used in electing village chiefs.

Based on the proposed system, Indonesia's House of Representatives would comprise 550 members.

Of these, 210 would be elected from districts in Java and Bali, and another 210 from outside the two islands. The Armed Forces would be allocated 55 seats, down from its current number of 75, while the remaining 75 would be allotted to include representatives from losing parties based on a proportional system.

The People's Consultative Assembly would have 700 seats -- the 550 DPR members; 81 representatives from the regions, with each of the 27 provinces having three representatives; and 69 from group representatives.

Electoral districts would be divided not merely based upon an administrative district but also depending on how many its population numbers.

Smaller districts, especially ones with few people, would be considered as one voting district. But major urban areas like Jakarta would most likely be allocated more seats.

"Jakarta will become one district comprising several candidates. The allocation of seats for Jakarta and other big cities will be determined by a proportional system," Djohan explained.

On the proliferation of political parties -- 46 new ones have registered with the Ministry of Home Affairs -- Djohan said his team would propose that each party must have the support of at least 5 percent of voters in a district.

This can be done through preliminary vote gathering in which each candidate from a party would have to collect signatures equivalent to 5 percent of the district he or she would be competing in.

To ensure that elections are contested free of "money- politics" or vote-buying, there would also be limitations on the spending of each candidate.

The current amount currently being discussed is Rp 50 million for a candidate. The candidate would be allowed to collect donations of no more than Rp 1 million from each individual and a total of Rp 50 million from corporations.

Spending of the money must be accounted for to the elections monitoring committee. (mds)