Toward Elections in Indonesia

VER SINCE the end of i949, when the Dutch finally relinquished sovereignty over Indonesia, both Indonesian and Western observers have been stressing the importance of early nation-wide elections. A number of Indonesian parties, and more recently all of them, have taken the same view. Because of the considerable opposition which is felt toward the present parliament (only partly elected) and because of the multiplicity of parties and the general confused state of political authority (as seen particularly at the almost annual cabinet crises), the election issue has forced itself time and again into the center of the political stage. It did so more strikingly than ever after the October I7 Affair of 1952. The Elections Act followed six months later. Election history in Indonesia goes back to well before i949. Residency elections were held in Republican territory as early as i946, and by I948 the Badan Pekerdia (Working Parliament) of the Republic had passed a law setting out a system of indirect elections based on proportional representation and universal franchise of all persons over eighteen. Under this same law too a Central Electoral Office was established and subsequently this office set up its branches throughout the whole Republican area. However, the continual guerrilla struggle and the second Dutch Police Action, which robbed the Republic of the greater part of its territory, made the actual holding of elections impossible until full sovereignty passed into Indonesian hands on December 27, I949. In many of the federal states and territories (established by the Dutch in areas outside Republican control) elections for representative councils were held, but the fact that these were organized by Dutch administrators and policed by colonial troops made it difficult in most cases to judge the significance of the results. It had appeared for some time after the Security Council's resolution of January 28, I949, that full sovereignty would be granted to Indonesia only in the middle of i950 after the holding of elections supervised by the United Nations Commission for Indonesia, which were

Cabinet (room) · Democracy · General election · Geography · Indonesian · Opposition (politics) · Parliament · Political science · Politics · Proportional representation · Sovereignty · Asian Studies and History · Law · Public Administration

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