The official process leading towards the 2017 simultaneous regional elections is supposed to have started this month, with the General Election Commission (KPU) establishing polling committees (PPK and PPS), and later in July 2016, the KPU is supposed to open the registration for independent regional head candidates. But unfortunately, the House of Representatives (DPR) has not finalized the revision of the law on the Election of Governors, Mayors, and Regents.
Commenting on the long overdue process, KPU Commissioner Hadar Nafis Gumay told the press that the revision of Law 8/2015 was to be finalized in April 2016, a month before the KPU begins their process leading towards the 2017 simultaneous regional elections. Hadar said that the KPU would like to see the revision completed this month. If not, the process would be further disturbed.
In the meantime, the Minister of Home Affairs Tjahjo Kumolo said that he believed the revision could be completed this month. According to Tjahjo, the only issue left for the DPR to debate is the provision requiring DPR and DPRD lawmakers to resign should they run for executive office. Political parties in the DPR want said provision removed. As for the minimum threshold for independent candidates and the mechanism for independent candidates to participate in regional elections, Tjahjo gave his assurance that the DPR had agreed to not revise the current arrangement.
As we’ve mentioned before, some political parties in the DPR wanted to raise the minimum threshold for independent candidate. They wanted duty stamp affixed to every endorsement form that independent candidates collected. Basically, it’s a move to make it difficult and costly for independent candidates to qualify for regional elections. Many believe that the Parties had a specific target: blocking the Governor of Jakarta Basuki “”Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama from seeking re-election. Ahok, as we all know, will enter the 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial election as an independent candidate. Ahok’s supporters called Teman Ahok (Ahok’s friends) have successfully collected 884,816 copies of id-card endorsement as per this morning (May 26).
If Tjahjo’s statement is correct, Ahok and his supporters should be happy with the news. But the DPR is not a predictable beast when it comes to legislation. We have to wait and see what will happen in the DPR in the next few days. The 2017 regional elections itself will be held simultaneously on February 15, 2017, in 101 regions. Said 101 regions are 7 provinces, 76 regencies, and 18 municipalities. The seven provinces that will participate in the simultaneous regional elections next year are Aceh, Bangka Belitung, Jakarta, Banten, Gorontalo, West Sulawesi, and West Papua.
By Haryanto Suharman
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