Reasons Why There Is A Petition To Postpone The Regional Head Election Until 2021

Illustrations (Irfan Meidianto / VOI)

JAKARTA - A number of community organizations that are members of the Civil Society Coalition for Healthy Pilkada have made an online petition demanding that the 2020 Pilkada Simultaneously be postponed until 2021.

In fact, the government has decided that the holding of the election day for the pilkada, which was originally scheduled for September 23, will be postponed to December. Then, the General Election Commission (KPU) began to continue the series of pilkada preparations on June 6.

However, one of the petition initiators, Perludem Executive Director, Titi Anggaraini, considers that the continuation of the Pilkada stages from June to December is still at risk of transmission of the corona virus because the number of positive cases of this virus in Indonesia continues to increase.

"Forcing Pilkada during a pandemic has the potential to cause more harm than benefit. The impact will expose many people involved in organizing Pilkada with COVID-19," said Titi when confirmed by VOI, Wednesday, May 27.

Titi continued, it is also feared that the implementation of the regional election campaign during the early days of COVID-19 will cause the politicization of social assistance as a campaign medium for the incumbent regional head.

"The politicization of social assistance results in unequal contestation for incumbent and non-incumbent election participants. This is detrimental to non-incumbent participants," he said.

There's nothing wrong with delaying

The postponement of the local elections to 2021 will automatically vacate the leadership space of hundreds of regional heads, because most of the term of office will end in February 2021. These positions must be filled by the acting (Pj) government.

According to Titi, this is not an obstacle. He said that the government would have no trouble preparing resources that could fill the temporary positions of 270 regional heads, both regencies, cities and provinces.

Even if the regional elections continue to be held in 2020, the government will still prepare an executor (Plt) for incumbent regional head candidates who are on leave while undergoing the campaign period.

"I do not see this as a problem. As long as the government is ready for the elections in December, it means that they are also ready to fill the officials if the elections are postponed to 2021. Because there is a need for human resources, both in 2020 and 2021," said Titi.

In addition, Titi also considers there is no problem if the term of office of the elected regional head in the Pilkada will be shorter than the standard one period of five years. This is because there are plans for a regional election in the next period to be held in 2024.

"Justice for the term of office of regional heads should not carry any risks, let alone risking the safety and health of citizens as a whole. Justice must be seen thoroughly for all," said Titi.

For information, the institutions that are members of the Civil Society Coalition for Healthy Pilkada consist of various organizations such as Netgrit, Netfid, Perludem, PUSaKO FH Unand, Puskapol UI, Rumah Kebangsaan, Kopel, JPPR, KIPP Indonesia, and PPUA Disabilities.

The rejection petition they created is on change.org. The full petition can be read at www.change.org/janganpilkadadulu.

Prior to making the petition, a number of these organizations had channeled their thoughts on postponing the elections through discussions with the Government, the KPU, and members of Commission II. However, the government still decided to hold Pilkada in December 2020.