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Lobbying for election delay intensifies
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Officials sort and fold ballots for the 2019 elections at a General Elections Committee (KPU) warehouse at STT Mandala University in Bandung, West Java, on April 1. (Antara/Novrian Arbi)
P
olitical lobbying remains underway, with elites of political parties within the ruling coalition seeking to influence other coalition members to postpone the 2024 general election.
One such elite is National Awakening Party (PKB) chairman Muhaimin Iskandar, who reignited recent debate over an election delay.
“We [the PKB] have not [changed our stance]. We are still waiting for leaders of political parties. If we have [any chance of meeting them] we’ll discuss [the election postponement],” Muhaimin said on Tuesday.
His statement came despite President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo’s recent reassurance that he would stick to the Constitution, which mandates that elections be held once every five years and limits presidents and vice presidents to two five-year terms in office.
“We also obey the Constitution; the proposal itself is within the corridor of the Constitution [if the postponement is made by revising the Constitution]," Muhaimin said.
PKB deputy chairman Jazilul Fawaid – who is also deputy speaker of the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR), which is made up of the House of Representatives and Regional Representatives Council (DPD) members and has the sole authority to amend the Constitution – said no faction in the MPR had proposed an amendment formally. But he floated a possibility that other parties would join the line if the discussion continued.
“It is possible that if the discourse continues to be rolled out, later at the formal decision-making stage, parties which already said they disagreed would agree. We'll just have to wait," he said.
