Political Parties and the Recruitment Process of Local Government Heads in Malang Raya

Abstract

Direct elections for the head of local government were a process of recruiting leaders in regions that can guarantee the representation of local people through a democratic process. In this process, theoretically and constitutionally political parties have important and strategic roles and functions. Unfortunately, the oligarchic practice that engulfed almost all political parties has internally and externally recognized the basic principles of democracy in the process of recruiting prospective leaders in the region. The democratic process is only procedural, not substantial. So far it is strongly suspected that the process of regional head elections is more colored by transactional politics. This paper aims first, to obtain an overview of the recruitment process for the local head government candidates by political parties in Malang Raya region. Second, to describe the power of money in choosing candidates by the parties and the voters. Third, to explain the transactional political impact on the performance of elected candidates. Methods were using descriptive analysis with qualitative approach and become parts of investigational report. Data were collected from interview and documentation. The results were consist of three aspects: first, at the stage of nomination of candidates for local head of government internally in political parties there was a tendency for friction between central and local political party leaders. In turn, this friction brought the failure of their  candidate in the local election.  Second, even though there were allegations of transactional politics between candidates for regional heads and political parties carrying them or between political parties, the allegations were not supported by concrete data. Third, the selection process for the head of local governments in the Malang Raya area tends to be less consistent with the performance of the government, especially those relating to PAD, IKF, and HDI.