KPUDs to take full charge of local elections: Legislators

KPUDs to take full charge of local elections: Legislators

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Legislators deliberating amendments to Law No. 22/1999 on local
government agreed on Wednesday to designate Local Election
Commissions (KPUDs) as the sole organizers of gubernatorial,
regental and mayoral elections.

The lawmakers, however, have yet to reach agreement on the
detailed electoral rules, including candidate nomination, types
of permissible campaigning, campaign funding, and the days on
which voting may take place.

In the draft submitted by the government, elections for
governors, regents and mayors were to be jointly organized by the
KPUDs and local council members.

But, "We have agreed that elections of governors, mayors and
regents will be organized by the KPUDs," said Agun Gunandjar
Sudarsa on Wednesday.

Agun is the deputy chairman of the House committee
deliberating the amendment of Law No. 22/1999 on local
government.

This latest agreement will reduce the possibility of
interference by local council members, who are mostly
politicians, in the local electoral process.

Committee member Chozin Chumaidy said the lawmakers had not
yet reached agreement on whether independents could stand for
election.

According to Chozin, most factions had argued that only
political parties or coalitions of parties could nominate
candidates.

A number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have
demanded that independent candidates be allowed to stand.

They have expressed fears that the giving of a dominant role
to the political parties would only encourage bribery and other
abuses in elections of local government chief executives.

The House of Representatives and the government are currently
discussing the amendment of the Local Government Law, which
entered into effect in January 2001.

Various issues in the law are being reviewed, but the limited
time available has made the question of the direct election of
governors, mayors and regents the top priority.

Agun added that his fellow legislators and the Ministry of
Home Affairs' regional autonomy director Oentarto S. Muwardi were
rewriting the revisions that had already been made after
discussing the issues involved at length.

The results of this process would be brought before another
plenary meeting of the committee scheduled for Aug. 19.