The document “Maintaining Direct Regional Elections” was drafted at an important moment in the journey of Indonesian democracy, when the idea of revoking the people’s right to vote in regional elections regained strength in the public sphere and the corridors of power. The discourse on regional elections through the Regional Representative Council (DPRD), which had repeatedly emerged and subsided since the beginning of reform, was once again proposed not merely as an academic discourse, but as a real political policy option. In this situation, this study is important as an effort to preserve the collective memory of democracy, as well as an intervention based on constitutional, historical, and state arguments.
