Crucial Issues Prior to the Regional Election of 2017

 

 

By: Toas H, Researcher in Galesong Institute, Jakarta

 

Simultaneous regional election of 2017 will be held in 101 regions throughout Indonesia consisting of 7 provinces, 18 cities and 76 regencies. The dynamics of the stages of the regional elections have not yet shown any significant vulnerability. One of problems that have come up is regarding the disbursement of funds that faces administration barrier. Besides, there is an indication of engagement of the organizers. Some other problems are early campaign by some candidates, internal conflicts within the political parties such as dualism of leadership, and efforts to mobilize supporters in the declaration of candidacy. These threat potentials need some attention to be monitored so that should anything happened, it can be anticipated promptly.

In simultaneous regional elections of 2015, it was run safely, smoothly and quite democratically in general. However, some problems still remained due to the imperfection of the regulation. Therefore, Commission II of the House of Representative (DPR-RI), together with the government agreed to revise the Act No. 8 year 2015 on the amendment of Act No.1 year 2015 on Perppu No.1 year 2015 on the election of governor, regent, and major to be an act. The revision is hoped to address all technical problems appearing during 2017 election.

 

Complexity of the Problems

            There are some concerns in the 2017 election such as: first, a newly established political party that has no chair should not form any coalition to support any candidate; conflicting political party must solve internal disputes before promoting its candidate and election commission (KPU) will not accommodate anything regarding double management of the party; the regulation regarding participants who are still in legal process due to some law violation should be stricter.

Second, to avoid any delay on the election due to technical problems in funding or due to the interests of the incumbent related to disbursement of funds, budgeting from the state budget (APBN) should be considered.

Meanwhile, regarding resignation process, the mechanism and any sanction being imposed to a candidate who just resigns after being declared as a candidate must be clear. The requirements for resignation for a bureaucrat and legislative members also the incumbent who wants to be a candidate must also be clear. The resignation should be made after the candidate is registered to show principle of fairness.

At the same time, during campaign period, clear regulation is required regarding distribution schedule of campaign props by the Election Commission. However, in order to avoid any delay by the Commission or the violations by the participants or supporters, the candidate / political party should be given the opportunity to organize and set the campaign props independently with strict requirements (number and location of campaign props); restrictions on the use of campaign media through electronic media (TV, radio, internet, etc.) are required to avoid domination by certain candidate / political party that is also the media owner.

Election Honorary Council Session (DKPP). It should be emphasized in the revision of the General Election Law that the trial of DKPP did not affect the Election results because DKPP only has limited authority  related to internal evaluation and improvement of the organizers of the General Election Commission (KPU and Bawaslu).

Election dispute needs to be regulated to avoid errors in the interpretation of existing regulations. It is necessary to emphasize the authority of each election organizers in the implementation of the General Election. However, there is a need to clarify which competent authorities can make a final decision regarding the election dispute, given the function of the Constitutional Court (MK) that has been handling the Election dispute is not right. MK basically just deals with a lawsuit related to legislation that are considered contrary to the 1945 Constitution. In order to avoid delays in voting due to the protracted dispute resolution of the nomination, then it needs to be clarified regarding the deadline for completion before the General Election ballot.

Amendments to the Election Law should be followed by the enactment of the Regulation for Election Commission (PKPU), as the guiding regulations / technical manual (Juknis) for the implementation of the General Election in 2017, in particular technical guidelines of the changed parts in Election Law. If PKPU can not yet published, the Commission may issue a Circular Letter containing technical execution, issued before stages of Election are started.

BERITA TERKAIT

Pembangunan IKN Terus Berlanjut Pasca Pemilu 2024

  Oleh: Nana Gunawan, Pengamat Ekonomi   Pemungutan suara Pemilu baru saja dilakukan dan masyarakat Indonesia kini sedang menunggu hasil…

Ramadhan Momentum Rekonsiliasi Pasca Pemilu

Oleh : Davina G, Pegiat Forum Literasi Batavia   Merayakan bulan suci Ramadhan  di tahun politik bisa menjadi momentum yang…

Percepatan Pembangunan Efektif Wujudkan Transformasi Ekonomi Papua

  Oleh : Yowar Matulessy, Mahasiswa PTS di Bogor   Pemerintah terus menggencarkan pembangunan infrastruktur di berbagai wilayah Papua. Dengan…

BERITA LAINNYA DI Opini

Pembangunan IKN Terus Berlanjut Pasca Pemilu 2024

  Oleh: Nana Gunawan, Pengamat Ekonomi   Pemungutan suara Pemilu baru saja dilakukan dan masyarakat Indonesia kini sedang menunggu hasil…

Ramadhan Momentum Rekonsiliasi Pasca Pemilu

Oleh : Davina G, Pegiat Forum Literasi Batavia   Merayakan bulan suci Ramadhan  di tahun politik bisa menjadi momentum yang…

Percepatan Pembangunan Efektif Wujudkan Transformasi Ekonomi Papua

  Oleh : Yowar Matulessy, Mahasiswa PTS di Bogor   Pemerintah terus menggencarkan pembangunan infrastruktur di berbagai wilayah Papua. Dengan…