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Jokowi signs election bill into law
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President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo (center), accompanied by Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita (second right), Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung (right) and presidential spokesman Johan Budi (second left), talk to journalists after a Cabinet meeting at the State Palace in Jakarta on Feb. 21. (Antara/Rosa Panggabean)
A
controversial election bill has been passed after President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo signed it into law on Wednesday, presidential spokesperson Johan Budi said on Saturday.
“The election bill was officially signed on August 16,” Johan said as quoted by kompas.com.
Johan said the bill has been registered as Law No. 7/2017.
The House of Representatives approved the bill during a protracted and heated plenary meeting on July 21 in which lawmakers of four political parties, rejecting the bill, walked out.
Read also: Election bill passed, presidential threshold intact
The Gerindra Party, the Democratic Party, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and the National Mandate Party (PAN) demanded that the 20 percent presidential threshold be scrapped from the bill.
The threshold is the minimum popular vote a party or coalition of parties must have to nominate a presidential candidate.
Soon after the bill was endorsed, Crescent and Star Party (PBB) chairman Yusril Ihza Mahendra and Peaceful and Benign Islam (Idaman) Party chairman Rhoma Irama filed a judicial review with the Constitutional Court to challenge the law. The two parties do not have legislative seats.
The two claimed that their constitutional rights to run for president had been violated as a result of the bill. (ecn/bbs)
