E51: Going Back to Indirect Elections

Political parties have had enough of direct elections.

One of the major changes to Indonesia following the fall of Soeharto and Reformasi was decentralization and a shift to a direct ballot election system. The aim? To ensure that local legislatures were not simply a rubber stamp of Jakarta.

In recent years though, we have seen a strong push to return to a similar system used under the New Order and ultimately return more power to the central government. Leading this movement are key political parties: PDIP, Golkar and Gerindra with the bigger goal of amending election laws in and even the Constitution. They aim to have the changes completed by 2024. What are the driving forces behind this movement?

We sit with Seth Soderborg, a PhD candidate at the Department of Government at Harvard University, to discuss why parties are pushing to return to the old system, what are the driving forces behind it and how might it impact Indonesian politics and elections going forward.

Episode Description:
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