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Rivals jeopardize ruling PDI-P's attempt to control House
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A House of Representative plenary meeting on the state budget. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
R
ival parties have jeopardized the path taken by the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) to secure the chairmanships of both the House of Representatives and the People's Consultative Assembly, a House member said.
The Gerindra Party, which supported its chairman Prabowo Subianto in a presidential contest against Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, who is now in power, and the National Awakening Party (PKB) have also demanded chairmanship positions in the name of “justice", a House member from Gerindra, Desmond Junaidi Mahesa, said.
“PDI-P has requested the chairmanships on the basis of proportionality so that it must be part of the leadership as it was the winner of the [2014] legislative election. For the same proportionality reason, Gerindra thus demands a chairmanship position as well,” Desmond told reporters on Tuesday.
Desmond argued that Gerindra and the PKB deserved the same position, saying Gerindra won the third biggest proportion with 73 seats and the PKB got 46 seats to be sixth biggest in the 2014 legislative election.
“We will accept the current chairmanship formation as it is, excluding an additional seat for the PDI-P. We will demand more seats for us and the PKB if the PDI-P pushes for space,” he emphasized.
(Read also: Lawmakers prepare to put PDI-P into House leadership)
The current House chairmanship consists of Setya Novanto of Golkar, Fadli Zon of Gerindra, Fahri Hamzah of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), Taufik Kurniawan of the National Mandate Parry (PAN) and Agus Hermanto of the Democratic Party.
Meanwhile, the Consultative Assembly’s leadership consists of Zulkifli Hasan of PAN, Mahyudin of Golkar, EE Mangindaan of the Democratic Party, Hidayat Nur Wahid of the PKS and Oesman Sapta of the Hanura Party. (dan)
