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.
House, govt to begin drafting revision on presidential nomination rules
Policymakers plan to start drafting a General Elections Law revision to comply with last week's court order that scrapped the presidential threshold, though it remains unknown when this might happen and whether the revision would be part of a broader process of combining all prevailing legislation on elections into a sweeping omnibus law.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
A poll worker holds up a ballot paper on Feb. 14 at a polling station in Banda Aceh, Aceh, during the tabulation of votes cast that day in the 2024 presidential election. (AFP/Chaideer Mahyuddin)
F
ollowing last week’s surprise court ruling that eliminated the presidential nomination threshold, the House of Representatives and the government plan to begin drafting a revision to the General Elections Law to introduce a new rule on how political parties nominate presidential candidates.
"We will begin working on [the draft revision]. I heard that the home minister will also form a team to begin drafting it,” Rifqinizamy Karsayuda, a politician from the pro-government NasDem Party who sits on House Commission II overseeing home affairs, said in a statement on Tuesday.
“In principle, we [Commission II] and the government are ready to work together to present a better political system for a better democracy in the future," said Rifqinizamy, without providing a time frame for the drafting process.
The House is currently in recess and will resume sessions on Jan. 20.
Read also: Calls grow for House to fall in line with nixed nomination threshold
On the second day of the new year, the Constitutional Court annulled a stipulation in the General Elections Law mandating a steep minimum threshold of winning either 25 percent of the popular vote or 20 percent of House seats in the previous legislative election for a political party or a group of parties to be eligible to field a presidential candidate, as it was contrary to the 1945 Constitution.
The court’s ruling gives all political parties an equal chance to nominate a candidate, restoring hope for more competitive elections after mounting criticism over the presidential election threshold, which limited the electoral field and in turn restricted the rights to vote and to stand for an election.
