The direct election of the leaders of executiveand legislative institutions in Indonesia has provided a paradoxical reality in efforts to improve the quality of democracy in Indonesia. On the one hand, it emerges the strong legitimacy of democracy while on the other hand, it appears nepotism as a new style of candidate strategy to win the fight. Several regencies in South Sumatra Province have shown this symptom.It seems that some regional leaders have blood relations and inter-party kinship. This occurs as a strategy to control the opinion of bureaucrats, politicians, and the community through control of access to positions and control of regional economic resources so that electability resources can be controlled through controlling the power knots of the community.The community becomes marginalized in determining their chosen leaders and representatives. The facts show that the level of community political participation is decreasing along with the shifting of bureaucratic loyalty to individual loyalty. Latent resistance has emerged that is detrimental to the quality of democracy.