Jakarta rolls back poll rights in blow to Jokowi

JAKARTA — Indonesia’s outgoing Parliament unexpectedly passed legislation early yesterday eliminating direct elections for provincial governors, district chiefs and mayors, a move slammed by critics as a major setback for the country’s democratic transition and a naked power grab by its wounded political elite.

The vote represents an early defeat for President-elect Joko Widodo, whose party lined up against the change, and suggests he will face a struggle to govern effectively. The move by the House of Representatives at nearly 2am yesterday, in the waning hours of its five-year term, was viewed by analysts as political payback by his rival, Mr Prabowo Subianto, and his supporters after Mr Widodo’s July presidential election victory.

The legislation, which does not need endorsement by the country’s departing president, Mr Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, stipulates that regional government leaders will be appointed by local elected legislatures. It passed by a vote of 226-135.

On July 9, Mr Widodo, the popular governor of Jakarta and a two-time provincial mayor, defeated Mr Prabowo, a former Army general and son-in-law of former President Suharto, who was forced to resign in 1998.

It was the first time that a candidate who was not part of the Suharto-era political elite or a general had won the Indonesian presidency.

A group of political parties that had supported Mr Prabowo’s presidential campaign and had not previously opposed direct elections suddenly changed their position after his defeat, in which he received 47 per cent of the vote to Mr Widodo’s 53 per cent.

Before yesterday’s vote, Mr Widodo, who will be sworn in Oct 20, had told reporters that eliminating direct elections at the regional level was “a setback for democracy”. During Suharto’s 32-year rule, his military-backed government appointed local leaders and rigged direct elections for the national Parliament.

Lawmakers nonetheless passed the legislation, which will amend the country’s decentralisation law and take effect in a few weeks, after more than 12 hours of often-raucous debate that was broadcast live on national television.

The legislation had appeared destined to fail until the parliamentary faction of Mr Yudhoyono’s governing Democratic Party — which will be out of power next week — abruptly walked out of the session after midnight when its proposed amendments for stricter control of direct elections were rejected.

The walkout denied supporters of direct local elections more than 100 votes and handed victory to the coalition supporting Mr Prabowo and his opposition Gerindra Party. That coalition will hold the majority of seats when the new Parliament convenes next week.

In recent days, Mr Yudhoyono had said he supported direct local elections in Indonesia and much of the anger yesterday was directed at Mr Yudhoyono and his party. Speaking in Washington where he was attemding a United Nations summit, Mr Yudhoyono said he was disappointed that the vote had passed and that the government was also considering appealing. He failed to explain why his party did not follow his apparent wishes and vote against the Bill.

“It’s a very sad story for our democracy and a sad legacy for President Yudhoyono,” said Ms Titi Anggraeni, executive director of the Association for Elections and Democracy, a nongovernmental organisation, adding that Mr Prabowo’s coalition acted out of spite. “Suddenly they changed their view because of the results of the presidential election,” she said.

Mr Yasona Laoly, a lawmaker from Mr Widodo’s Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, which won the April legislative elections, said they were angry that Mr Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party withdrew support at the eleventh hour.

“When the Democrats said yes for direct regional election, it was just part of an image campaign to win public support,” he said after the vote.

Mr Sarwono Kusumaatmadja, a former Suharto-era Cabinet minister who now advises Transformasi, an Indonesian public policy institute, said before the vote that the legislation was a brazen attempt to prevent another politician from outside the Jakarta-based political elite, such as Mr Widodo, from becoming president.

However, senior members of Mr Prabowo’s Gerindra party said direct local elections were too costly, had caused violent local conflicts in the far-flung archipelago nation of 250 million people and ultimately led to corruption by hundreds of elected heads of provincial-level governments.

“We have had a bad experience with regional elections, so we want to change. What’s wrong with change?” said Mr Fadli Zon, the vice-chairman of Gerindra. Agencies