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t the age of 63, University of Indonesia (UI) communication science professor Bachtiar Aly made a big decision by resigning last year from his teaching job to run as a legislative candidate for the newly established NasDem Party.

Contesting in the first Aceh electoral district, Banda Aceh-born Bachtiar, who chairs NasDem'€™s board of experts, managed to secure 38,820 votes in the April 9 legislative election and won one of the seven House of Representatives seats offered in the district.

Even if he lost the election, German-educated Bachtiar said he would not regret his earlier decision to give up his career as a respected academic.

'€œPeople at universities tend to be very vocal and critical toward their government, but most of them are reluctant to join political parties although they are more than qualified to do so. Their critics, however, would only end up as personal views without the government following them up,'€ he said recently.

Before joining NasDem, Bachtiar worked as a government advisor for politics and security, including on issues related to the conflict-prone Aceh province. The father of two also once served as the Indonesian ambassador to Egypt between 2002 and 2005, making him one of the most politically knowledgeable politicians among NasDem'€™s 35 newly elected lawmakers.

'€œHad NasDem managed to come in fifth in the recent legislative election, I would have a very big chance of receiving [NasDem] endorsement to serve as House deputy speaker,'€ Bachtiar said.

Unlike Bachtiar, 31-year-old Moreno Soeprapto of the Gerindra Party will make his debut as lawmaker with very limited experience. The racer-turned-politician, who secured 52,921 votes in the fifth East Java electoral district, said he would need to '€œlisten and learn a lot'€ before he started his new job in October.

'€œDuring the [lawmaker] candidate recruitment process, Gerindra provided us with training about the party'€™s platform and how to become a political fighter. As far as I'€™m concerned, the party will then invite its elected lawmakers to brief them about, among others, [House] ethics and procedures in a [House] meeting,'€ he said.

More than 6,000 candidates from 12 political parties competed for 560 House seats offered in 77 electoral districts nationwide in this year'€™s legislative election. Meanwhile, the other 200,000 contested to win one of the 2,137 seats in the country'€™s 33 Provincial Legislative Councils (DPRD I) or one of the 17,560 seats in 497 Regional and Municipal Legislative Councils (DPRD II).

Almost five weeks after voting day, the General Elections Commission (KPU) announced on Wednesday the 560 elected lawmakers for the next five years.

As the election winner, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) secured a total of 109 seats, ahead of the Golkar Party and Gerindra, each of whom garnered 91 and 73 seats, respectively.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono'€™s Democratic Party, which got 61 seats, came in fourth, followed by the National Mandate Party (PAN) with 49 seats, the National Awakening Party (PKB) with 47 seats, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) with 40 seats and the United Development Party (PPP) with 39 seats.

While NasDem managed to send 35 politicians to the House in its maiden election participation, the Hanura Party will remain the smallest faction in the House with only 16 lawmakers.

The other two parties, the Crescent Star Party (PBB) and the Indonesian Justice and Unity Party (PKPI), meanwhile, failed to exceed the legislative threshold of 3.5 percent.

According to the law, political parties can file election disputes with the Constitutional Court within three days of the KPU announcing the result of the legislative election. The court, meanwhile, must resolve the disputes within 30 days.

Speaking at a press conference on Friday, court chief Justice Hamdan Zoelva said the court had registered a total of 735 legislative election disputes filed by political parties.

Although the KPU is confident about the validity of the legislative election results, observer Said Salahuddin said there was still a possibility of seeing minor adjustments in the composition of the next House.

'€œThe KPU'€™s legislative results are official but not yet final. In the 2009 [legislative election], the Democrats, for example, saw their number of seats slightly drop from 150 to 147, while PAN saw seats increase from 43 to 46 following the court ruling,'€ he said.

Contrary to popular belief, The Jakarta Post learned that non-incumbents, surprisingly, would dominate the next House.

As many as 323, or 58 percent, of the 560 newly elected lawmakers, do not serve in the current period, outnumbering the 237 House members who successfully secured their reelection bid.

Although dozens of these non-incumbents '€” including Wiryanti Sukamdani of the PDI-P, Zulfan Lindan of NasDem, Ramson Siagian of Gerindra, Muhaimin Iskandar of the PKB, and Fadel Muhammad of Golkar '€” used to serve as lawmakers in previous periods, many others, like Bachtiar and Moreno, are newbies with various degrees of political experience, inevitably raising widespread concern of the future law-making performance of the House.

Other prominent new faces in the House are Aryo Djojohadikusumo, a nephew of Gerindra presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto, Golkar'€™s Andika Hazrumy, the eldest son of Banten Governor Ratu Atut Chosiyah, and Prananda Surya Paloh, the only child of NasDem chairman Surya Paloh.

Former Constitutional Court chief justice Mahfud MD once said a lack of competency among lawmakers and horse-trading had resulted in poor quality legislation.

In 2012, the court granted 30 judicial review cases, or 31 percent of the 97 cases in total. The court overruled 31 cases, or 32 percent, and rejected 30 cases, or 31 percent, while the plaintiffs withdrew the remaining six complaints.

National University political science lecturer Alfan Alfian insisted that political parties must collectively take the highest responsibility of maintaining the performance of both their lawmakers and the House.

'€œNewly elected lawmakers, especially those without a decent political background, need to adapt with the new [House] environment. Some of them even need much more time than the others. Without any regular political training to their lawmakers and councilors, political parties will put the performance of legislative bodies at risk,'€ Alfan said.

Bachtiar, however, said internal measures were far from enough to increase the quality of the next House.

'€œMass media, especially TV, can play a significant role in putting external pressure on the House. Journalists, for instance, should be more selective in choosing news sources and boycott lawmakers who speak or behave inappropriately.'€ he said.