Local elections will be 'undemocratic'

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Law No. 32/2004 on regional administrations could create undemocratic elections of governors, mayors and regents, scheduled to begin in June across the country, a court heard on Wednesday.

A number of experts told the Constitutional Court that the law contravenes the Constitution because it allows the government to intervene in the electoral process.

Ryaas Rasyid, a former director general of regional autonomy at the home affairs ministry, said the government must not get involved in the regional elections process.

"A democratic election must be conducted by an independent agency," he told the court.

The government recently issued Government Regulation No. 6/2005 on regional elections, which are due to start in June.

During the hearing, the government representatives said that the government drafted the regulation in such a way because all local administration chiefs were part of the state apparatus, under the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Legal expert Frans Luhulima of Airlangga University concurred with Ryaas, calling the government "impolite" for issuing the regulation, while the law was still being challenged in court.

"The court should freeze the implementation of the law on regional direct elections," he said.

Meanwhile, political expert J. Kristiadi said the contentious articles of the law fail to ensure the principle of fairness and impartiality because it authorizes local general elections commissions (KPUDs) to conduct the elections, but also requires them to be accountable to each provincial legislative council (DPRD).

The KPUDs are the provincial branches of the General Elections Commission (KPU), which organized last year's legislative and presidential elections.

"The local legislatures meanwhile comprises members of political parties, which can nominate someone for the local election. A player must not be involved in the process of such a power competition, or else a fair poll can't be guaranteed," Kristiadi said.

Ryaas said that there should be a single national system for polls either to elect legislative members, the president or the local administration heads.

He said he could not understand why the law does not authorize KPU, which commendably ran the 2004 elections and won praise from the international community, to organize the regional elections.

"These inconsistencies are illogical," Ryaas claimed, and added that the government and the House of Representatives, which enacted the law, failed to show their commitment to real regional autonomy.

Kristiadi and Ryaas agreed that the problems stemmed from the Constitution, which they deemed as "not perfect yet".

A number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and provincial branches of the KPU, brought the case to the Constitutional Court, saying they opposed certain articles of the law.

Law No. 32/2004 came into force in October 2004. While the law was enacted in a bid to nurture democracy in the country, many have warned of a possible backlash over its many confusing stipulations.