Malang, East Java (Antara) - Former Constitutional Court chief justice Mahfud MD said he agreed if elections of provincial governors, city mayors and district heads were done by regional legislative assemblies like before. "Substantially it would be better if they are done by DPRD like before because direct elections have given bigger losses than advantages," he said. He said if election of a provincial governor, for example, is done by DPRD, a candidate would only need 51 votes if the number of DPRD members is 100 and so he need not spend much for it. In a direct election on the other hand a candidate must provide a huge budget moreover if he/she is an incumbent the possibility of him/her exploiting existing potentials or facilities would be big, he said, adding that more people would certainly be bribed in connection with that making their mentality being damaged. The law professor also said that the social cost in direct elections was also big and the most worrisome was social division that the elections could cause and which would take long to recover. "Governors or mayors who have caused the division might have been replaced but the division might possible remain. The condition would hurt social order of the community," he said. In view of that he said he was of the view that the elections had better be returned to the old system and done by regional legislative assemblies to reduce cost and disadvantages. He said the need is urgent especially now that complaints over election results are rife. "Perhaps violations happened but they are difficult to prove so that they might be referred to a criminal court but the crime itself would not abort the results," he said. The government has also proposed returning the elections to DPRD in the current discussion of the draft law on regional elections in the parliament but many political parties have not yet agreed on about it. (*)

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Editor : Didik Kusbiantoro


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