Refly Harun: If We Really Want Free and Fair Elections, the Elections Law Should Not be Made by the Government

A member of the Association of Professors on Constitutional and Administrative Law (APHTN-HAN), Refly Harun, says that if we really want free and fair elections, then we should never let the government and the parliament write the Elections Law for us. According to Refly, the law made by the government only considers short-term political interests.

“The greatest problem of elections is that election process tend to be fraudulent. If we really want free and fair elections, we should never let the government and members of the parliament to write the law for us. Indeed, they have the authority to make elections law. However, the problem is that they’ve never been able to make a proper elections law,” says Refly during a public discussion “Should We Let DPRD Members to Select DPD Members?” in Jakarta (05/09).

As long as the elections law do not serve the general interests of the people, we will never be able run free, fair, and fraudulent-free elections, Refly continues. Members of the parliament should be able to ensure that the elections law will punish any violator accordingly.

“They might be thinking: ‘I can’t make the elections law to be more assertive and harsher because I will be the one who get punished by such law’,” says Refly.

To be fraudulent is in the nature of every man, says Refly. A good system is the one that is able to prevent men to commit fraud.