Local elections could result in lack legitimacy: Survey

Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A new survey has suggested that the direct elections being planned in over 140 regions across the nation this month should be delayed due to lack of preparations, or else they would spark conflicts and produce illegitimate leaders.

The insufficient preparedness on the part of all relevant parties in the regions to hold the elections would not contribute to the desired development of democracy, it argued.

The study, jointly conducted by the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) and the Partnership for Governance Reform in Indonesia, found that most regions, including election organizers, local administrations, political parties, eligible voters and independent supervisory agencies, were not prepared for the planned democratic events.

The survey was conducted simultaneously in 14 regencies and municipalities in North and West Sumatra, Java, Bali and South Sulawesi. It involved local elite figures, including government officials, local election commission members, informal leaders and journalists.

The 14 regions, including the regencies of Kutai Kartanegara, Pekalongan, Kebumen and Cilegon, were part of more than 140 regencies and municipalities scheduled to hold local elections in June.

According to the survey's findings, the local branches of the General Elections Commission (KPUD)s could not work optimally to prepare direct elections because of the late disbursement of election funds from the central government.

"The registration for eligible voters was also chaotic because many people had never been registered, while many others received more than one voter card. This has happened in Kutai Kartanegara and Cilegon," Syamsuddin Harris, who coordinated the survey, said when presenting the survey results on Thursday.

He said the establishment of a special regional election desk by the central government was disturbing rather than helpful for KPUDs, while local administrations have played no role other than cashiers.

"The civic education campaign by the KPUDs have failed to reach a majority of eligible voters and they are not given a chance to vote," he claimed.

Syamsuddin, also a political analyst with LIPI, said the most crucial problem was serious and widespread corruption and vote- buying, while most regions had no independent supervisory bodies.

"Independent candidates have to pay more for their nominations and have to secure political support from one or more of the large political parties," he said.

It was also difficult to find independent election monitoring bodies due to the absence of foreign aid and foreign election monitoring organizations, Syamsuddin added.

Hadar Gumay, coordinator of the Center for Electoral Reform (Cetro), concurred and said the regions' lack of preparedness was evidenced by the recent local elections in Pekalongan, Kutai, Kebumen and Cilegon.

"According to Cetro's observations, the number of illegal votes during the local elections is around two percent higher than that during the second round of last September's presidential election in the four regions, while the participation of eligible voters is around 30 percent lower than that during the presidential election. This indicates that the registration drive for the local elections among eligible voters were not conducted properly," he said.

Syamsuddin and Hadar were of the same opinion that the decision was in the hands of home affairs minister M. Ma'ruf and KPUDs whether they had the courage to postpone the elections, especially those scheduled for June 27-28, to avoid widespread public disappointment and social conflict.

"The quality of local elections and the legitimacy of elected leaders will be questioned and social conflict will be a distinct possibility among local elites and their supporters as is currently happening in Kutai and Cilegon," said Hadar.