Voter's education urgen for next elections

Rachmad Bahari, Institute for Policy and Community Development Studies (IPCOS), Jakarta, rgb@ipcos.or.id

For the first time in the country's history, Indonesians will directly elect members of the legislative bodies -- the House of Representatives (DPR), regional representative councils (DPD) and regional legislative assemblies (DPRD), in the 2004 general elections, and also the president and vice president in the 2004 presidential election, almost simultaneously.

Fundamental changes have been introduced for the 2004 general elections, particularly regarding the system and procedure in Law No. 12/2003 on general elections.

Yet, while the direct election of the president by the people reflects their sovereignty, details on how the people's suffrage right is to be exercised is still scant, if not absent altogether.

People have only become confused over the controversies that have arisen from the time the laws on elections, political parties and presidential election were deliberated, until their approval by the House.

The deliberation of these laws were heavily underlined with political interests. Further, the implementation of the law on political affairs is an experiment in political practices and thus contains some vulnerable points. The experiment involves three systems; the general elections uses the open list proportional system for the DPR and DPRD members and the district system for the DPD, while the winner of the presidential election is the one who gets the majority of votes, with special conditions.

This political experiment can serve as a means to educate citizens on democracy. Such an experiment would need to be well prepared, ideally with legislation free of various interests, and with independent organizational and supervisory institutions, adequate supporting infrastructure and sufficient understanding on the part of the voters. Most important is the availability of funds to organize this major national event.

Yet, while next year's general elections and presidential election are fast approaching, these three prerequisites are yet to be met -- either by the House or by the General Elections Commission (KPU), an independent, permanent and national institution tasked with the organization of the general elections.

For the public, the general elections mean nothing more than piercing the logo of the political party of choice on the ballot. The 1999 elections were flaunted as the most democratic ever in this country, but the elected legislators were those who generally ignore the well-being of the people they are supposed to represent.

This happened because the people could only select political parties. After the elections, the votes were counted and, based on a quota of the ratio of votes per party set by the KPU, a decision was made on the number of House seats granted to a political party. It was then left to the political parties to decide who would represent them.

To prevent a similar domination by the executive board of political parties regarding the determination of their representatives in the legislative bodies, the upcoming general elections will apply an open-list proportional system instead of the previous closed-list proportional system.

Apart from choosing political parties, voters will also choose candidates from their selected party. This new system is more democratic, if it is implemented consistently.

House seats will no longer be accorded to candidates on the basis of their ranking on a party list, but on the basis of the number of votes they garner.

However, this will not be the case in the 2004 general elections; a party's executive board will still hold sway in determining its representative in the legislative bodies.

Clause 1 of Article 84 of Law No. 12/2003 on general elections gives room for this domination: "The vote in the general elections for members of DPR, DPRD at the provincial level and DPRD at the regental/municipal level shall be cast by piercing, on the ballot paper, the logo of the political party taking part in the general elections and the name of a candidate under the logo of the respective political party."

Clause 1 of Article 93, however, in effect states that votes cast only for a political party, even if the voter does not select a candidate, will still be deemed valid. Hence, this allows a party's executive board to determine who will sit on the representative bodies.

Aside from the controversy over the presidential election bill that has already won House approval, particularly in regards the article that allows a convicted criminal to run for president, the bill also contains a stipulation on the electoral system that merits close observation.

The pair of candidates running for president and vice president will win the election if they can collect more than 50 percent of the votes, with a minimum of 20 percent of votes each from at least half the number of provinces in Indonesia (Clause 2, Article 66 of the presidential election bill).

If this requirement cannot be met, the contestants with the highest number of votes in the first round will move on to a second round. If three or more pairs of candidates have the highest and the second highest number of votes, the contestants for the second round will be determined on the basis of a broader and stratified vote collection.

The winning pair will be determined on the basis of the highest number of votes collected, regardless of the number of votes collected in the electoral regions.

In the United States, the presidential and vice presidential candidates from each political party must go through a primary election phase, in line with the party mechanism.

In this regard, the convention that the Golkar Party has organized is a breakthrough in implementing democracy here -- regardless of whether it is just a political gimmick.

Other political parties should imitate Golkar Party in this respect, also in the election of members of the legislative bodies. This would at least ensure that the presidential and vice presidential candidates would be screened in the party's democratic internal selection process.

As the general elections and the presidential election are fast approaching, all relevant parties must explain to the public how people should properly exercise their voting rights.