TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Lawmakers grill Bawaslu over its ruling on Prima Party
Change Size
The Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) building in Central Jakarta is seen in this undated photo. (Wikimedia Commons/musnahterinjak)
Lawmakers have questioned the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) for handing Prima Party another win, ruling the General Election Commission (KPU) committed an administrative violation.
On March 2, the Central Jakarta District Court sided with the party in a lawsuit claiming KPU had improperly denied it the chance to take part in the 2024 general election. The court ordered the KPU to restart all election processes from scratch, and it set a specific timeframe that effectively pushed the election back from Feb. 14, 2024, to 2025 at the earliest.
Last week, Bawaslu ruled the KPU had committed an “administrative violation” in denying the Prima Party’s electoral application and the party would be allowed to resubmit its application to the poll body within 10 days.
Lawmakers of House of Representatives’ Commission II, overseeing home affairs, questioned, on Monday, Bawaslu commissioners over its decision, saying the ruling muddied the water and fueled uncertainty over the organizing of the coming general elections.
Ahmad Doli Kurnia, chairman of the commission, cautioned that other parties, which have previously failed the eligibility verification process by the KPU, would make a similar move and resubmit their motions to Bawaslu amid ongoing election procedures.
“When will it stop and end? When will the actual number of political parties participating in the election be determined? We are worried this will disrupt the election stages,” Doli, a Golkar Party politician, told the meeting.
Junimart Girsang of the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) said if other parties decided to make a similar move, the election organizers would be preoccupied with mountains of legal motions, instead of focusing on holding the elections.
"We are worried the Bawaslu decision will disrupt the election procedures that have been carried out by the KPU," Junimart said.
Assurance
Bawaslu chairman Rahmat Bagja stressed its decision to give the Prima Party another chance would not interfere with the 2024 general elections processes.
“Of course, we will not sacrifice the ongoing election stages. We have calculated things like this so problems do not occur in the future," he said.
KPU commissioner Idham Holik previously said the execution of Bawaslu’s decision would not interfere with the election stages, stressing it would be carried out simultaneously.
“We will decide on the factual verification results of [Prima Party] following the Bawaslu's decision in the third week of April," Idham said.
Prima had challenged the KPU’s decision that ruled the party had failed its eligibility verification process in October and won a decision from Bawaslu that allowed Prima to resubmit its application materials.
On its second attempt, however, Prima failed to attain eligibility in 22 of the total 34 provinces. The Bawaslu then rejected its second appeal.
