Voter's education urgen for next elections

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.