| Home > South-East Asia >> Indonesia | |
National coalitions rendered irrelevant in local polls
Jakarta Post - July 29, 2015
Based on data compiled by the General Elections Commission (KPU) on political candidates set to contest the Dec. 9 simultaneous local elections, The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the Nasdem Party, the Hanura Party, the National Awakening Party (PKB), Agung Laksono's Golkar Party faction and Muhammad "Romy" Romahurmuziy's United Development Party (PPP) faction, which are part of the ruling Great Indonesia Coalition, have struck deals to propose candidates with any members of the Red-and-White Coalition, including the Gerindra Party, Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and the National Mandate Party (PAN).
"From the data that we have so far, there is no more dichotomy of parties being part of coalition A or B," said KPU commissioner Juri Ardiantoro on Tuesday.
As of Tuesday, the KPU had registered 240 pairs of candidates who wished to contest in 140 different regions. Of the 240 candidate pairs, 13 are for gubernatorial elections in eight different provinces, 191 for regent elections in 110 regencies and 36 for mayoral elections in 22 cities.
Philips J. Vermonte, a political analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said that the loose composition of party coalitions at the regional level had been predicted due to the different political landscape at the local level.
Philips also said that in some cases a dominant political party which could go it alone decided to build alliances for practical reasons.
"It can be for various reasons. One is that the dominant political party wants to absorb all the power of its coalition partners to ease governance upon winning," he told The Jakarta Post.
One of the country's provinces where parties can easily switch alliances in local politics is Jambi. "The political situation in Jambi is so fluid and we have not been affected by the coalitions at the national level since the beginning [after the national election]," said Sudirman, the secretary of East Tanjung Jabung regency in Jambi.
In the lead-up to the local elections, the Democratic Party, the PDI-P and the PKS nominated incumbent Jambi Governor Hasan Asri Bagus of the Dems, while PAN, NasDem, Hanura, the PKB, Golkar and the PPP registered incumbent East Tanjung Jabung Regent Zumi Zola from PAN, paired with incumbent Deputy Governor Fachrori Umar of NasDem, according to Sudirman.
In South Tangerang, Banten, incumbent Mayor Airin Rachmi Diany sought reelection with backing from Golkar, NasDem, the PKB, PAN, the PKS and the PPP.
The domination of politically linked candidates has made it difficult for independent candidates to run in the race. The KPU has also set stringent requirements for independent candidates.
Under KPU Regulation No. 9/2015, independent candidates can nominate themselves as long as they earn the support of 6 to 10 percent of a region's total population, 3 percent higher than the last regulation. They have to gather the names and photocopies of the identity cards of their supporters.
Though the KPU registered 254 pairs of independent candidates, only 174 were eligible to be verified.
Separately, the two camps of the Golkar Party agreed on Tuesday to nominate 219 pairs of candidates for the Dec. 9 local elections. The decision on the candidates was made after a joint team, consisting of politicians from both camps, assessed 269 candidates' electability in their own regions.
During the assessment, the party received help from reputable pollsters to gauge the candidates' electability.
"After working hard for days and considering the survey results, of the 269 candidates, we have agreed to recommend 219 candidates for the elections," Golkar Party executive from the Aburizal camp MS Hidayat said during a press conference on Tuesday in Jakarta. (rbk, ind)
See also:
 |