Panja Meeting, 6 DPR Factions Agree To Propose A Term Of Office For Village Heads To 9 Years

Illustration of the DPR Building of the MPR Senayan Jakarta. (Between)

JAKARTA - The Working Committee (Panja) for the revision of the Village Law (UU) agreed to propose a change in the term of office of the village head (kades) to 9 years in one period.

In drafting the Draft Law (RUU) concerning the Second Amendment to Law Number 6 of 2014 concerning Villages (RUU Desa) the Legislation Body of the DPR also agreed that the village head could be re-elected twice.

"The village head holds office for 9 years starting from the date of inauguration. How do you agree, huh?" said Chairman of the Indonesian House of Representatives Legislation Body (Baleg) Supratman Andi Agtas who chaired the meeting at the parliament complex, Senayan, Jakarta, Thursday, June 22, which was confiscated by Antara.

As for the Village Law, the term of office of the village head is 6 years for one period, and can be re-elected three times.

In the Working Meeting on the revision of the Village Law, the six factions of the DPR who attended agreed to support the proposed term of office of the village head to be extended to 9 years, and can be re-elected for a maximum of two terms.

The six factions are PDI Perjuangan (PDIP), Golkar Party, PKB, Gerindra Party, PKS, and PPP.

Meanwhile, the NasDem Party, Democratic Party, and PAN were not present at the Village Bill Working Committee Meeting.

The proposed change in the term of office of the village head is contained in Article 39 paragraph (1) of the Village Bill, which states that the village head holds office for 9 years from the date of inauguration.

Article 39 paragraph (2) of the Village Bill has also changed to "The village head as referred to in paragraph (1) can serve a maximum of two consecutive or non-consecutive terms of office".

At the beginning, Supratman explained that there were three main things that needed to be addressed together by the Village Bill Working Committee. First, he said, was regarding efforts to improve the welfare of village heads and village officials. Second, related to the change in the composition of the term of office of the village head.

"Third, related to the amount of village funds, yes. Yesterday some of the things we did were related to the amount of village funds, the formulation was that several friends had suggested it," he said.