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Court ruling sparks fresh debate over House threshold
While any plan to revise the General Elections Law has yet to be formally discussed at the House, some political parties have started proposing to lower the threshold, which has been met with opposition from others who want to increase the barrier to enter the national legislature.
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Lawmakers attend a House of Representatives plenary session at the Senayan legislative complex in Jakarta on March 5, 2024. (Antara/Galih Pradipta)
T
he 2024 general election is still being wrapped up, but the debate on the legislative threshold for future elections, especially the one in 2029, has reignited among political parties as a result of a recent Constitutional Court ruling mandating a change on the matter.
While any plan to revise the General Elections Law has yet to be formally discussed at the House, some political parties have started proposing to lower the threshold, which has been met with opposition from others who want to increase the barrier to enter the national legislature.
The court ruled last week to scrap a highly debated provision in the General Elections Law mandating that parties need to garner 4 percent of the national vote in an election to be able to sit in the House of Representatives.
The justices argued the article was inconsistent with the principles of popular sovereignty and electoral fairness, calling it a breach of legal certainty guaranteed by the Constitution.
While the threshold still applies to the result of this year’s legislative election, the Constitutional Court ordered the 4-percent figure to no longer be applied in the 2029 legislative election.
The country first implemented the legislative threshold in the 2009 election, with the bar being set at 2.5 percent. But the percentage was increased to 3.5 for the 2014 election and again to 4 percent for the 2019 and 2024 elections.
In the past, larger parties have suggested raising the threshold. The Golkar Party, NasDem Party and National Awakening Party (PKB) announced their support for an increase to 7 percent, while the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), Gerindra Party and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) suggested a 5 percent threshold.
