Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto has revived debate over how the country chooses its regional leaders by using a major gathering of his governing coalition to urge political elites to “be brave” and consider scrapping direct elections.
Prabowo and his supporters argue that shifting to indirect regional elections would cut wasteful spending and curb vote buying, but analysts and activists warn that abandoning direct polls would undercut democratic accountability and risk reversing hard-won reforms as lawmakers prepare to rewrite electoral rules next year.
Indirect selection of governors, regents and mayors by regional legislatures was widely implemented during the New Order era under the dictator Suharto, but Prabowo is framing the mechanism as a pragmatic response to costly and candidate-centric local races.
“I am urging all political forces, come on, let’s be brave to provide solutions to our people, [let’s still be] democratic but not waste money,” the former special forces commander said on Friday at the anniversary celebration of Golkar, a part of his jumbo coalition.
The people had already elected the members of the district and provincial legislatures (DPRD), he said. “Why don’t the DPRD members just elect the governors and regents? That’s it, done”.
