Reconsidering the indirect elections for the head of region, response towards the current direct democration mechanism system in Indonesia

Abstract

Local elections are part of the framework of the mechanisms of democracy in Indonesia. In its essence, the purpose of direct democracy through the election mechanism is an open access to the widest possible public participation in determining the government leaders. Direct election is a mechanism that allows the conscious involvement of the people to choose their leaders, as practiced in Polis, Athens. This is what is called as political participation, the involvement of every citizen in the political process. Since the enactment of the 2005 elections in Indonesia, a number of issues emerged as the implications of the election in achieving the initial objectives. At the operational level, on Field survey there are problems in the aspects of voter registration, registration and establishment of regional head and deputy regional head, campaigning, voting and counting, as well as the establishment and ratification of the selected candidates. The urgency for indirect election seems need to be reconsidered to address a number of major issues that confront the implementation of direct democracy. If direct election is the antithesis of indirect election the other day, it would require an instrument that is able to answer the contrary antithesis raising the fundamental issues of indirect election. Above all the benefits of direct elections, which in turn indicates a failure at the implementation level, it seems require an alternative like switching into indirect election with a number of advantages.