The Method to Avoid Oligarchy According to the Election Law Codification Secretariat

Internal oligarchy within political party will stub out the fairness principle for all members of the party. This condition is worsen by the fact that the election mechanism of the Parliament members is not yet inclusive and only involving a few of party’s elites.

“In the codified Election Law Bill that we’ve made, we offers a solution to reduce internal oligarchy in political party, that is by reducing the role of party’s chairman or secretary in determining which candidates are allowed to participate in election,” says a member of the Secretariat of the Election Law Codification Initiative (the Secretariat), Titi Anggraini (10/27).

Titi explains, there are to ways to avoid oligarchy. Firstly, the list of candidates nominated in elections should be made by all party members in an internal meeting. Secondly, the list is made by all party officials, including officials from villlage/sub-district level.

For the provincial election, the candidates should be chosen by all officials from provincial, regency/ municipality, and sub-district level. Meanwhile, for the regency/municipality election, the candidates should be chosen by all officials from regency/municipality, sub-district, and village level.

“We prefer the second method. With this provision, we can enhance the quality of our democracy, and at the same time prevent party elites to commit money politics and reduce oligarchy,” says Titi.