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LSI: Vast majority of Indonesians want direct elections of local leaders
Jakarta Globe - September 9, 2014
The Indonesian Survey Circle (LSI) asked 1,200 respondents in 33 provinces about the controversial regional elections bill.
Adjie Alfaraby, a researcher at LSI, said the poll revealed that 81.25 percent felt that a local leader must be elected directly by the people, and not by regional legislative councils (DPRD) – as is proposed in the bill to be passed this week.
Only 10.71 percent of respondents proposed that the authority to elect local government heads be returned to local lawmakers, LSI said. Another 4.91 percent of respondents said the president should appoint local chiefs.
"The average support for direct elections among supporters of political parties is 78 percent to 86 percent," Adjie said. "Even supporters of [losing presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto's] Red and White coalition agreed that local administration chiefs must be elected directly by the people."
No less than 81.53 percent of respondents who voted for Prabowo in the July 9 presidential election supported direct elections, he added. "Looking at this massive... rejection of the bill, the people's representatives should realize that their plan... does not have the public's support," Adjie said.
Meanwhile, the National Awakening Party (PKB) on Tuesday called the regional elections bill a setback to democracy.
"We are opposed to scrapping the direct elections," said Marwan Jafar, the leader of the PKB fraction at the House. "Don't discard direct elections to save money. Electing leaders through the DPRD can be more expensive than direct elections."
Marwan stressed that direct elections are part and parcel of the nation's reform agenda, adding that a greater role for the DPRD would increase the likelihood of transactional politics in the regions. "We urge all factions in the House of Representatives to support the blossoming democracy in our beloved country," he said.
Separately, the chairman of the Golkar Party's executive board, Hajriyanto Y. Thohari, said the party was still undecided on the matter, even though several of the party's lawmakers on Monday defended the bill.
"There is remains the dilemma of trying to uphold the people's sovereignty while attempting to curb the excesses of regional elections," Hajriyanto said, citing money politics in the regions and high costs to organize local elections.
On Monday, Golkar politicians Nurul Arifin and Abdul Hakam Naja, both from House Commission II, which drafted the controversial bill, argued the law would save the state budget, end money politics and prevent conflict in the regions.
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