Indonesian lawmakers rethink plan for early regional elections after court ruling
JAKARTA: House of Representatives lawmakers have said a proposal to move the upcoming regional elections forward might be off the table after a Constitutional Court opinion held that the polls should remain in November.

On Thursday (Feb 29) the court rejected a petition to add a provision to the 2016 Regional Elections Law requiring candidates who had been elected in the Feb 14 legislative election to resign from their positions if they were running the upcoming regional elections.

The legislators elected in February are to be sworn into office in October, while the regional elections are scheduled for Nov 27.

The plaintiffs argued that the legislators-elect should resign to ensure a fair competition between them and other candidates and prevent the abuse of power. In one opinion supporting the ruling, the court asserted that the upcoming regional polls must be held in November, in accordance with dates stipulated in the Regional Elections Law, to prevent them from overlapping with the timeline for this year’s general election.

“Changing the schedule will disrupt and threaten the constitutionality of the implementation of the simultaneous regional elections,” said Justice Daniel Yusmic Pancastaki Foekh, reading out the opinion at the Thursday hearing.

The Constitutional Court opinion could force the legislature and executive to cancel plans to move the regional elections to September, said House Legislation Body (Baleg) deputy chairman Achmad Baidowi.

“It’s not a problem if we want to revise [the Regional Elections Law], but we can’t change the schedule because we follow the Constitutional Court’s ruling,” the United Development Party (PPP) politician told reporters on Tuesday.

He added that the House would still pursue revisions to the law put forward in November of last year but would not reschedule voting day. Among the provisions to be changed are points of overlapping authority between the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) and the Voters Supervisory Committee (Panwaslih), a special election supervisory agency in Aceh.

The plan to bring forward the 2024 regional elections emerged in August of last year, reportedly at the behest of the Home Ministry. The ministry argued at the time that voting day needed to be moved to prevent power vacuums in local administrations, as most top regional posts would be vacant by late August 2024.

The government had initially planned to issue a government regulation in lieu of law (Perppu) to reschedule the regional elections but scrapped the plan as it preferred to have the initiative come from the House.

Communications and Information Minister Budi Arie Setiadi said in November 2023 that having the House spearhead the initiative would prevent the appearance that President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo had a particular interest in the bill.

Analysts said moving the regional polls two months forward would put Jokowi in a better position to ensure his preferred candidates were elected. The House then took over the initiative, with Baleg endorsing a revision to the Regional Elections Law during a plenary session in November 2023.

Baleg chairman Supratman Andi Atgas of the Gerindra Party claimed the revision would help the country’s electoral system work more efficiently by allowing the government to simultaneously inaugurate hundreds of incoming regional leaders.

The House is awaiting a presidential letter (Surpres) ordering the start of deliberations on the revisions.

Khoirunnisa Nur Agustyati, executive director of elections watchdog the Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem), urged the President and House to follow the Constitutional Court’s ruling and stick with the November date for the regional elections.

She noted that the court had cited a General Elections Commission (KPU) regulation scheduling the regional polls for November.

“If [the House and government] want to bring the date forward while the process of the general election is still underway, it will create more scheduling conflicts that could disrupt the preparations for and implementation of the regional elections,” Khoirunnisa said.

Hadar Nafis Gumay, executive director of the Network for Democracy and Electoral Integrity (Netgrit), concurred with Khoirunnisa. But he said he was doubtful that the court’s ruling would halt the House’s plan to fast-track the regional elections.

“Unless the court had ruled that changing the regional elections schedule would violate the Constitution, the House and government still [have the ability] to reschedule the regional elections, since they’re the ones who have the authority to change the law,” he said.

The Jakarta Post contacted Home Minister Tito Karnavian, Home Ministry regional administration development director general Safrizal Zakaria and Home Ministry spokesperson Benni Irwan for comment, but had not received responses as of the writing of this article. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
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JAKARTA: House of Representatives lawmakers have said a proposal to move the upcoming regional elections forward might be off the table after a Constitutional Court opinion held that the polls should remain in November.