The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) arresting Kutai Kartanegara regent Rita Widyasari. Suspect Rita is arrested for allegedly accepting bribe and gratuity of up to Rp 6 billion from PT Sawit Golden Prima (PT SGP) president director Hery Susanto Gun linked to the granting of a location permit for a palm oil nucleus and plasma plantation in Kupang Baru village, Muara Kaman district. The Kukar regent I detained in the KPK detention house in the KPK building.
Corruption among regional heads has become an acute problem. Even though President Jokowi has expanded oath of regional heads with the addition, "In the name of God, I swear that I will not receive gifts or any kind of gifts from anyone I know, and I should have the capability to determine that he or she has an intention related or possibly related to my position and profession," it means nothing.
The high cost of regional head elections that are borne by candidates are believed to be the main cause of corruption. They collect money to repay their debts for the previous elections, and collect capital for the next elections. The regional heads change decisions and policies upon monetary gifts. Upon realizing this, the House of Representatives (DPR) and the government have made many legal amendments to reduce the election costs borne by regional head candidates.
However, since the issuance of Government Regulation in Lieu of Law No. 1 of 2014, which was later enacted as Law No. 1/2005, and two subsequent changes through Law No. 8/2015 and Law No. 10/2016, corruption among regional heads has not stopped.Experience in the regional head elections shows several expenses exist that are both legally and illegally borne by candidates: promotion, candidacy deposits, funding campaigns, buying votes, provision of sanctions, and bribing officials. If a candidate paid only the legal expenses, it would not amount to much. Moreover, Law No.8/2015 obliges a portion of campaign funds to be included in the regional budget. But, nearly no candidate exists who is confident that funding their activities through merely legal means would win them the election.
The candidacy deposit, buying votes and bribing officials are forbidden by law. With regard to the buying votes and bribing officials, the law is clear that the perpetrators are to be subjected to criminal sanctions. We can only hope that the election supervisory body and the police can capture such perpetrators, so that prosecutors will be able to take them to court and judges can sentence them.
What needs attention is the candidacy deposit. Law No. 8/2015regulates that making candidacy deposits is subject to criminal sanctions and at the same time, administrative sanctions in the form of voiding the candidacy. However, the deposits do not stop. If the candidates have to pay to their own political parties, as admitted by the head of Golkar’s West Java regional executive board, Dedi Mulyadi, of course candidates cannot refuse to pay other parties.
Even though all parties said they refused candidacy deposits, their official statement is different from the behavior of the party caretakers. Candidacy transactions are held behind closed doors between the party elite and the candidate. Such illegal activities are often heard of, but difficult to prove. Therefore, neither the party elite nor the candidate is afraid of the legally imposed sanctions.
Among the other illegal expenditures, the candidacy deposit is the heaviest burden on the candidates. They bear this burden even after the candidates are elected: giving special services to the elites of supporting parties, starting from enabling them to win tenders, to issuing licenses, up to making policies that benefit those companies owned by the party elites.
Systemic solution
The usual approaches, such as by prohibiting candidacy deposits by handing down criminal sanctions and voiding the candidacy of perpetrators, have been ineffective. There has to be a systemic approach: changing the technical variables of the elections to encourage party elites and candidates from distancing themselves from trading on the candidacy terms.
First is to open the candidacy mechanism. The provision that a candidate must be nominated by a party or a coalition of parties that have 20 seats in the Provincial/City Legislative Councils (DPRD) or receive 25 percent of votes in the last election has to be wiped out. This regulation has to be changed so that each party withDPRD seats can propose their own candidate pairs. The requirements for independent candidates must also be reduced to facilitate those who want to compete through the non-party path.
Such a mechanism would gather more candidates. However, the possibility has been prevented by Law No. 8/2015, which applies the simple plurality principles in determining the winner. It states that no second round of a regional election will be held, because those with the highest number of votes (regardless of percentage) are the electoral victors. This formula prevents political speculation and at the same time, encourages parties to form a coalition to support the candidates that have the biggest chance to be elected.
The presence of many candidates can be prevented through applying fines for candidates who receive an insignificant number of votes. Each candidate is obliged to provide a fixed deposit to the General Elections Commission (KPU). If they do not obtain a certain percentage of votes, say 5 percent, the deposit goes into the state treasury. This provision will prevent political adventurers or fraudulent people from entering the elections.
Second, the regional head elections have to be held simultaneously with the election of DPRD members on a single day. The simultaneous executive and legislative elections, on the one hand, will encourage parties to build a solid coalition for the candidacy of governors, regents or mayors; on the other hand, it will also force political parties, candidates and potential DPRD members to hold joint campaigns, thereby saving on electoral costs.
