PKS Wants Regional Heads to Keep Deputies, Gerindra Not in a Hurry
Members of the PKS and Gerindra factions in the House of Representatives (DPR) have voiced their respective views on the emerging proposal to hold regional elections without deputy regional head candidates, which has been circulating in the DPR over the past week.
Member of Commission II of the DPR from the PKS faction, Mardani Ali Sera, stated that his party rejects the proposal to hold regional elections (Pilkada) without deputies as a way to reduce disputes arising from the division of duties between the two positions.
Mardani praised the idea of regional elections without deputies. However, he argued that disagreements between regional heads and their deputies are more often caused by political maturity.
“It is a good idea. But the root cause is political maturity. Having a deputy is actually good because duties can be shared,” Mardani said when contacted on Monday (10/8).
According to him, the task of serving the public cannot be placed on a single person.
Furthermore, he stressed that both regional heads and deputy regional heads must not think in the short term by constantly vying for power after taking office.
Instead of eliminating deputy regional head candidates, Mardani said his party is actually proposing that the nomination threshold for regional elections be lowered to between 6.5 and 8.5 percent.
According to him, lowering the threshold is important to prevent forced political marriages between candidates.
“With a sufficiently low threshold of 6.5–8.5 percent, one political party can nominate a candidate alongside a community figure or academic. The two can work together. Previously, because of the 20 percent rule, there were many forced marriages,” he said.
Meanwhile, Deputy Chairman of Commission II of the DPR from the Gerindra faction, Bahtra Banong, said his party is not in a hurry regarding the proposal for regional elections without deputy regional head candidates. Bahtra confirmed that there has been no discussion of the Regional Election Bill in the DPR to date.
He said his party is still focused on preparations for deliberating the General Election Bill.
“There has been no discussion yet. We are still concentrating on the General Election Bill first,” he said.
During a meeting of Commission II of the DPR with the Ministry of Home Affairs on Thursday (30/8) last week, a member of the PKB faction, Muhammad Khozin, highlighted the role of deputy regional heads, who have often merely served as vote getters.
However, in terms of governance, deputy regional heads have almost no duties or authority. In fact, tensions between the two parties are not uncommon.
“Let us just elect regional heads without deputies. Deputy regional heads can simply be appointed by the regional head. This is so they do not become mere vote getters; the current situation is unfortunate for deputy regional heads,” Khozin said.