Poll ruling gives president free hand

Poll ruling gives president free hand

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Although future regional administration leaders, including
governors, mayors and regents are to be directly elected by the
people, the President will retain his influence over their fate
in office.

According to the recently introduced government regulation on
direct regional administration elections, any move by local
councillors to impeach poor performing regional leaders would
require the approval of the President.

The President can also temporarily suspend the administration
leader without the approval of local councilors if the leader
concerned has been implicated in a criminal case that carries a
minimum sentence of five years' imprisonment. This arrangement
does not differ from the one that is presently in place.

Various regions in the country will hold elections in June of
this year to select new governors, regents and mayors, as some
226 regional administration leaders will end their terms soon.
The new election system is aimed at helping promote democracy in
the country.

According to Article 123 of the regulation, local councillors
must propose any planned impeachment against an administration
leader to the President, who, upon hearing the considerations of
the Supreme Court, must make a decision within 30 days.

Among the reasons that could prompt local councillors to
impeach a regional administration leader are, if the leader
breaches their oath of office, or if they fail to perform their
duty for six consecutive months.

A proposal to impeach a leader could only be put to the
President in a plenary meeting of the local legislative council,
attended by at least three fourths of local council members, two
thirds of whom would need to support the proposal.

Local councillors in this era of regional autonomy have taken
to directly dismissing poor performing local administration
leaders.

One prominent case was the move in 2002 by councillors in
Surabaya, East Java to impeach the city's then mayor Sunarto
Prawiro for his prolonged, unexplained absence in office.

On behalf of the central government, then minister of home
affairs Hari Sabarno defended Sunarto, but finally bowed to the
councillors' demand and installed Bambang D.H., who at the time
was Sunarto's deputy as his successor and backed by a leading
political party.

Meanwhile, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono opened a two-day
working meeting of regional administration leaders from across
the country on Thursday.

In his speech at the State Palace, the President urged
candidates running for regional administration posts to refrain
from involvement in money politics.

Susilo emphasized to the governors, provincial police chiefs,
prosecutor's office heads and provincial military commanders
present that election candidates must be ready to lose with
honor.

"When I was a vice presidential candidate in the 2001
election, and I lost, I quickly called a press conference to
announce my defeat, although I had many reasons to complain about
the election process," he said.

The President also asked the candidates to discourage violent
behavior among their supporters during the campaign period.