“The night before the election, Metro TV aired a debate between the candidates. I watched only for a while, but I was not impressed.” This comment, from 26-year-old voter Cendera Rizky in South Tangerang earlier this month, appears to sum up the view of many Indonesians this year as the country conducts yet another round of local elections.

A total of 246 regency, mayoral and provincial elections are being held this year. More are scheduled for 2012. South Tangerang is a city in Banten province which forms part of the Greater Jakarta metropolitan area.

Ms Cendera is not the only Indonesian dissatisfied with the nation’s local elections. According to the People’s Voter Education Network, voter turnout declined in all 10 elections for district heads that it studied in July and August this year.
Indeed, turnout this year rarely rose above 60 per cent. Only 43 per cent of eligible voters cast their votes in Surabaya’s mayoral elections in August. Barely half did in the mayoral elections in Depok last month. In the city’s last mayoral elections in 2005, turnout was 63 per cent.

One reason for the lack of voter interest is the tendency of political parties to regard winning office as more important than advancing their policy agendas.

Mr Dodi Ambardi, a political consultant with Lembaga Survei Indonesia, notes that policy platforms are rarely spelt out. And when they are, “they tend to be little more than wish lists”. During the August election campaign in Sleman, he notes, winning candidate Sri Purnomo raised the possibility of establishing a health service in the area. But he gave no indication how it would be financed.

Then there are the strange alliances among political parties that make no sense when seen from the perspective of national politics. In Sleman, for example, Golkar and the PDI-P (Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle) – political opponents at the national level – joined forces to support Mr Sri Purnomo. Vote buying is also becoming common.

Voter cynicism is further increased by the fact that many candidates for local office display little party loyalty. Failing to get endorsement for his candidacy as mayor of Surabaya from the Islamist PKB (National Awakening Party) in 2005, Mr Arif Afandi joined an opposition PDI-P team led by Mr Bambang Dwi Hartono, and subsequently became vice-mayor. Last year, however, Mr Arif joined President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Democrat Party. In this year’s elections, he ran against Mr Bambang with the support of the Democrat and Golkar parties.

At the national level, religion and ethnicity are not as important to voters as many foreign observers assume. In ethnically or religiously divided local areas, however, such factors can be crucial. Faced with impending defeat by a well-financed opponent in May, South Kalimantan Governor Rudy Arifin rallied his supporters by reminding them of his indigenous Banua roots. His challenger, a descendant of the Bugis people who were not native to the area, responded by emphasising his Muslim piety.

According to Mr Ambardi, most incumbents win because of their ability to market government programmes to voters as if they were financed by their respective political parties. They also misuse their positions in other ways. On Nov 3, the Constitutional Court ordered the local election committee in Manado to conduct a re-election because one candidate had mobilised local officials to support him.

Local elections are important to political parties because control of local administrations can give them an important edge in national elections. The sympathy of local bureaucrats is often crucial when it comes to obtaining permits for rallies or booking government facilities.

But what happens when an incumbent is so popular that his success is all but inevitable? The answer is that everyone attempts to get on the bandwagon, even if their support contributes little to the candidate’s success.

Popular Solo Mayor Joko Widodo, a PDI-P politician, hardly needed any allies to get re-elected in April. Nevertheless, he enjoyed the support of other parties. They were presumably hoping that by supporting Mr Widodo, local bureaucrats would avoiding creating problems for their campaign workers in the 2014 national elections.

Mr Widodo has a reputation of being an able administrator. Proof enough, perhaps, that Indonesians like Ms Cendera will support good leaders – when they can find them.

Copyright © 2010 Singapore Press Holdings Ltd