We have discussed this issue since 2005."Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Indonesia National Resilience Institute (Lemhannas) has suggested that only governors should be elected by regional legislators, whereas district heads and mayors should continue to be directly elected by the public.
Based on a study carried out by Lemhannas in 2007, the government and the House of Representatives should agree on a gubernatorial election through the Regional Legislative Council (DPRD) and a direct election for district heads and mayors, Governor of Lemhannas Budi Susilo Soepandji stated here.
"We have discussed this issue since 2005. And in 2007, we conveyed a suggestion in a seminar and academic paper that democracy carried out in regional head elections by using one-man-one-vote system had triggered many clashes during that period," he said when speaking before recently elected legislators for the parliamentarian period 2014-2019, at Lemhannas.
Lemhannas recommended that governors should be elected by lawmakers in DPRD because governors are governments apparatuses or installed by president, while district heads and mayors are elected by the public.
Deputy Speaker Priyo Budi Santoso on the occasion stated that indirect elections of regional heads were expected to reduce the high cost of elections. Some parties, however, consider that indirect elections will result in a regression of democracy, he pointed out.
Direct or indirect election is only a matter of choice in democracy, he added.
(Uu.F001/INE/KR-BSR)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
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