TEMPO.CO, Padang - Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi said simultaneous general elections would be held in 2020—after the 2019 presidential race—for 539 regions in the country. He added there would be a caretaker overseeing the election process.
“So all can be completed in 2020,” Gamawan said in Padang on Friday, March 28, 2014.
The ministry’s Director General of Regional Autonomy, Djohermansyah Djohan, said all House factions had approved of the plans and that they were currently in talks to formulate the regional elections bill.
“We will seek to carry out direct, simultaneous elections,” he told Tempo. He said he expected the bill’s discussion would conclude in August so the future government could implement it immediately. “This will be an Independence Day’s gift,” he said.
Djohermansyah said the bill would stipulate that regional elections would be organized using the state budget as opposed to the regional budget—which is currently being implemented. He added the bill also regulated there would only be elections for regional heads, excluding their deputies, to avert possible disputes between the two.
ANDRI EL FARUQI
