At the heart of the debate on the revision of Regional Election Law No.1/2015 is the postponement of simultaneous regional elections to 2016. Should the House of Representatives (DPR) and the central government finally agree on this point, who stands to benefit? What are the implications?
Members of the House Commission II had formed a Working Committee (Panja) to internally deliberate the revision of Law 1/2015. They have agreed on seven points of the revision. The most crucial of which is the amendment to Article 201 Paragraph 1 and Article 201 Paragraph 5 for the sake of postponing the first round of simultaneous regional elections from 2015 to 2016 and the implementation of the first nation-wide, simultaneous regional elections from 2020 to 2021.
Commissioner of the General Election Commission (KPU) Ferry Kurnia Rizkiyansyah welcome the postponement. Ferry said it will give the KPU additional time to prepare for the implementation of simultaneous regional elections. The central government, however, has not yet commented on whether or not they agree with the postponement plan.
Minister of Home Affairs Tjahjo Kumolo said that the central government still want the simultaneous regional elections in 204 regions to be implemented in 2015 as per the Law 1/2015. The PDI-P politician then referred to the KPU’s previous statement of readiness to conduct the 2015 round of simultaneous regional elections.
Tjahjo did say that the central government will, nevertheless, enter into a discussion with the DPR in the upcoming session deliberating the revision of Law 1/2015. And so we have to wait until we know for sure whether the first 204 local elections in 8 provinces, 170 regencies, and 26 municipalities will be held simultaneously in 2015 or postponed to 2016.
Having said that, the PDI-P and their Great Indonesia ruling coalition (KIH) should technically be the ones getting the advantage should the simultaneous regional elections in the first 204 regions get postponed to 2016.
In such a scenario, the Home Affairs Minister would have to appoint state/local officials as acting governors/regents/mayors in said 204 regions to replace the respective regional leaders whose term expire in 2015. But this will only be an advantage if all 204 acting governors/regents/mayors agree to help PDI-P (and the KIH) win the local elections. To do that, said 204 acting governors/regents/mayors must have special authority in budgeting.
The problem is, by law, an acting governor/regent/mayor has limited authority, including in drafting the new local budget (RAPBD).
But this problem can be resolved with a simple release of a government regulation (PP) that would expand the authority of an acting governor/regent/mayor, including in the drafting the local budget. But so far there hasn’t been any news of such a plan coming out of the Home Affairs Ministry.
Though having said that, Umar Hasyim, the Deputy Speaker of the Surakarta Legislative Council (DPRD), said that the Home Affairs Ministry had mentioned of a plan to issue a government regulation that will expand the authority of an acting governor/regent/mayor, including in drafting of the local budget.
Umar told Detakjateng.com that the plan was discussed during the consultative meeting between the Home Affairs Ministry and the Local Regulations Formulation Agency (BP2D) of all of the DPRDs on Jan. 28, 2015.
The opposition group known as the Red-and-White coalition (KMP) also stand to benefit from the postponement of simultaneous regional elections to 2016. The Golkar Party would especially gain a reprieve. As we all know, Golkar is still divided into the two warring factions of Agung Laksono and Aburizal “Ical” Bakrie. The dispute has left the party in limbo, with none of the competing faction having the official recognition of the Ministry of Law & Human Rights.
Without this recognition, neither one of the two competing factions in Golkar can participate in a regional election. This is especially the case if we’re to stick with the current provisions of Law 1/2015, obligating the stages of the simultaneous regional elections to begin by this month of February.
So, the postponement of the simultaneous regional elections from 2015 to 2016 will be crucial for Golka. It will give the the additional time to not just resolve their internal dispute, but also to begin rallying the opposition and regain their form.
By Haryanto Suharman
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