Commission II Of DPR Said That Almost All Factions Want Regional Elections To Be Held In 2022, Except For PDIP

JAKARTA - The Draft Law on General Elections proposed by the House of Representative (DPR) as of November 26, 2020, regulates that further regional head elections (Pilkada) will be held in 2022 and 2023.

In Article 731 of the draft Election Bill, the 2022 Pilkada is carried out to elect regional heads from the 2017 elections, while the 2023 Pilkada is for regional head elections from the 2018 elections.

Deputy Chairman of Commission II of the DPR from the NasDem Faction, Saan Mustopa, said that this schedule was normalized from the previous discourse of merging regional elections with presidential and legislative elections in 2024.

"So, what should be enacted in 2024, we normalize 2022 as a result of the 2017 regional elections, and the 2023 regional elections as a result of the 2018 regional elections will still be carried out," said Saan at the DPR building, Tuesday, January 26.

Saan said that almost all party factions in parliament agreed that the next Pilkada would be held in 2022 and 2023. However, one PDI-P faction noted that his party wanted the elections to be harmonized in 2024.

"Most of them want the Pilkada cycle to be like now. Well, outside of that, PDIP is the only one who gives notes. Others want it to be normalized," explained Saan.

The consideration of most factions wanting the elections to be normalized, continued Saan, because it was feared that the implementation would not go as expected.

"Even now, in practice there is a regional election in a district where the security apparatus is inadequate. He has to ask for help from the nearest regional police. If for example, there is something extraordinary, how about mobilization from security?" said Saan.

According to him, the focus on fulfilling the electoral quality of regional head elections could be reduced because it was accompanied by presidential and vice presidential elections.

"Yesterday, the electoral quality for the legislature decreased, because people focused on the presidential election (2019 Election). Yesterday the combined presidential and legislative elections resulted in reduced legislature, what about regional elections? The burden is getting bigger," he concluded.