Budget Efficiency, Jazilul Fawaid Proposes Governor Election Through DPRD

Deputy Chairperson of the National Awakening Party (PKB) Jazilul Fawaid (Nailin/VOI)

JAKARTA - Deputy Chairman of the Budget Agency (Banggar) of the DPR RI, Jazilul Fawaid, proposed that the election of governors and deputy governors at the provincial level be carried out through the DPRD, no longer directly by the people.

This proposal was made because the high costs that must be incurred in the Pilkada, which according to Jazilul, are very burdensome for the state budget.

Jazilul, who also serves as Deputy Chairperson of the National Awakening Party (PKB), stated that the high cost of selecting governors was clearly seen in the 2024 Pilkada.

For example, the Government spent more than Rp1 trillion only for the West Java Pilkada, not including the cost of regional elections in other provinces.

"It's not a small budget. If the Rp1 trillion budget is allocated to districts in other provinces, such as NTT, it could be a trigger for the economic revival of the area," said Jazilul, Friday, November 29.

According to Jazilul, regional autonomy is actually enough to be given to districts/cities, so that regional head elections should be sufficient to be carried out at the district/city level. Therefore, direct regional elections at the provincial level need to be re-evaluated.

Despite proposing changes to the electoral system, Jazilul emphasized that democracy must continue and the people still have the right to participate in the political process. However, he stressed that the efficient use of the budget should be a serious concern.

Jazilul also suggested that the issue of political costs be discussed further by political parties. One of the right moments to discuss this is the time to revise the political law, which may be done through the omnibus law system, which combines several laws related to political parties, elections and elections.

In addition, Jazilul proposed a separation between the general election of legislative members (pileg) and the presidential election (pilpres). He argues that holding the two elections simultaneously diverts people's attention from legislative candidates, who should also get attention equivalent to the presidential election.