Indonesian leader 'to restore local votes'

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono wants to reintroduce direct elections for governors. Source: AAP

OUTGOING Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono says he is seeking to overturn a new law that abolishes direct elections for local officials, amid criticism of his party's failure to block it.

THE House of Representatives on Friday voted 226 to 135 to approve the bill, according to which governors, district chiefs and mayors would be elected by the local legislatures.

"We want to maintain direct elections, with improvements," Yudhoyono said."If Plan A fails, I will resort to Plan B," he said, without elaborating."I hope we will find a way."The president said he had been advised that neither he nor his Democratic Party had standing to challenge the law in the Constitutional Court.Yudhoyono's party legislators boycotted the parliamentary vote after their proposed amendments failed.Under the current system, local leaders - including the former Jakarta governor and now president-elect Joko Widodo - have been elected directly by voters.Proponents of the new legislation said direct elections were too costly, prone to fraud and often sparked violence among supporters of rival candidates.Joko's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and two other parties that backed his candidacy criticised the bill as a setback for democracy.Much of the public anger over the legislation has been directed at Yudhoyono on social media like Twitter and Facebook.The president will still be directly elected, but critics said it would be impossible for reform-minded leaders like Joko to emerge under an indirect election system.They also said the bill was a ploy by Joko's opponents, who form the majority in the upcoming parliament, to control local governments and undermine his leadership.Direct local elections began in 2005 as part of efforts to decentralise political power after the fall of dictator Suharto in 1998.Joko, who also opposed the bill, will be sworn in as president on October 20.

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