Local Chief Executive Accountability in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia: A Legal Comparative Analysis

This research aims to observe how Constitutions and laws in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Malaysia regulate the role of the people in the local executive accountability system. Accountability, as an essential part of the local representative democratic system, contributes to preventing corruption and improving government responsiveness. However, designing an effective local accountability system in decentralised countries like Indonesia, the Philippines, and Malaysia poses challenges. The complexity of relations between accountability actors, the system for determining local chief executives, and the form of the state and the government system can affect the local accountability model. This comparative study evaluates the Constitutions and laws related to the role of citizens in the local accountability systems in these three neighbouring countries as they progress towards their commitment to enhancing local democracy. This study is carried out under the comparative qualitative methodological framework and utilises secondary sources for analysis. Based on the comparative expositions, Indonesia and Malaysia can learn from the political accountability adopted by the Philippines as it provides wide participation for the citizens to hold local chiefs accountable and features a strong punishment system through recall elections to increase responsiveness and responsibility of local chiefs in administering local government.