W

hen popular Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama announced his now-canceled independent bid for the city’s upcoming gubernatorial election, analysts asked if the end was nigh for political parties.

Megawati Soekarnoputri, leader of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the nation’s largest party, was alarmed by Ahok’s move, and ordered her party’s rank and file to fight deparpolisasi, a term referring to efforts to minimize or eliminate the roles of political parties in democracy.

Megawati was not being paranoid. The rise of Ahok came after the country elected Joko “Jokowi” Widodo as president. Jokowi was an obscure PDI-P member from Surakarta who many believe has become more powerful than his own party and whose popularity has inspired the creation of volunteer groups across the country. Moreover, the party now has little control over Jokowi as its own member, even after Megawati called him a “party officer”.

The PDI-P and other political parties have been maneuvering to regain their supremacy. The parties, for example, managed to insert provisions into the newly passed Regional Elections Law that force the election organizer and monitoring body to bow to whatever they say about election rules.

Article 9 of the law stipulates that the General Elections Commission (KPU) is obliged to consult with the House of Representatives through a hearing in drafting KPU regulations and guidelines (PKPU). The hearing result is final and binding for the commission. Meanwhile, Article 22 requires the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) to do the same in drafting its regulations.

The KPU and Bawaslu have claimed they were not informed about the two articles during deliberations of the law, enacted on June 2. Critics say the provisions could undermine the election bodies’ independency, and could lead to the issuance of election regulations that disadvantage voters.

The House, for instance, recently agreed to a PKPU stating that convicts placed in probation are allowed to run in regional elections. The lawmakers ignored the KPU’s argument during hearings that the 2016 Regional Elections Law clearly prohibits all convicts from running in elections. But the same law also says the KPU cannot challenge the House’s decision.

The House also ignored the KPU’s recommendation that people who have yet to register for electronic identification cards (e-KTP) should still be allowed to vote in the 2017 regional elections. As the e-KTP project has been plagued with glitches, the House’s move could leave millions of people disenfranchised.

Now that the government is set to submit the much-awaited election bill, political parties are looking to have a stronger grip on the country’s political system. The government, supported by the majority of parties at the House, has proposed that the current electoral system be changed from the open-list proportional system to an “open-limited” system, which grants political parties the final say over who will get a seat in the House after the legislative election. The system is closer to the closed-list proportional representation system.

Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem) executive director Titi Anggraini said political parties’ maneuvers showed they were not ready to hold clean and democratic elections.

“Political parties seem to feel threatened by the independence of election organizers like the KPU and Bawaslu. They may also see that the cadres voted for by the people are those who can’t promote the interest of the parties, so they need to intervene in the determination of elected candidates,” Titi said.

PDI-P faction deputy chairman Hendrawan Soepratikno, however, argued that as election participants were political parties, the parties’ sovereignty must be set out first. In the legislative election, he said, voters should vote for parties only, because parties knew best about which candidates were qualified.