According to quick counts and vote tally tabulation, the PDI-P is set to be the party with the largest number seats at the House and thus be entitled to the speakership post as per the 2018 Legislative Institutions (MD3) Law.

“A House speaker has to have a certain set of skills and competencies and it only makes sense to nominate Puan as the strongest candidate,” PDI-P executive and lawmaker Hendrawan Supratikno said on Tuesday.

Puan ran in the East Java electoral district and is said to have garnered the most votes compared with other legislative candidates from the PDI-P.

“Thank God, according to the MD3 Law, the party that wins the [legislative] election will get the speaker’s post. Maybe [I will be a candidate] but it’s not final yet,” Puan told reporters.

Article 427 of the MD3 Law stipulates that the House speakership consists of a House speaker and four deputy speakers, which will be assigned to representatives of the political parties that gained the most votes. The article also stipulates that the House speaker be a lawmaker from the political party that won the most seats.

The current composition of the House leadership does not reflect this mechanism, as revisions initiated by parties in the opposition coalition, including the Golkar Party and the National Mandate Party (PAN), which supported Prabowo Subianto and then-running mate Hatta Rajasa in the 2014 presidential election, stripped the majority party in the House of the right to appoint the speaker, allowing the House to choose the speaker through a vote. Golkar and PAN jumped ship to the ruling coalition in 2015.

The law, as revised in 2018, reverted back to the initial mechanism for determining the House speaker.

As of Wednesday, vote count tabulation by the General Elections Commission (KPU) based on 43.26 percent of the total number of polling stations across the country suggested that the PDI-P had secured 20.18 percent of the vote, followed by Golkar at 13.08 percent and leading opposition party Gerindra on 11.61 percent. The final results will be announced on May 22.

House Speaker Bambang Soesatyo of Golkar said Puan met the requirements to take over his role as leader of the House.

“She’s competent. And if the PDI-P appoints her to be House speaker, we have to support [the proposal]. I agree with [the appointment of Puan],” Bambang said.

Puan made her debut in the legislature in 2009. Three years later, she was appointed as PDI-P faction chairwoman replacing party secretary-general Hasto Kristiyanto.

In 2014, Puan won the most votes of any PDI-P candidate in that year’s legislative election. Within less than one month of her inauguration as lawmaker she was also inaugurated as a senior Cabinet minister, assuming her current post. Puan eventually left her lawmaker post a few months later.

Other political parties in the ruling coalition, including the National Awakening Party (PKB) and NasDem Party, have expressed support for Puan’s potential appointment.

Many believe that Puan is also the strongest candidate to be PDI-P chairwoman in in the 2020 national congress when Megawati is expected to step down.

Gerindra, however, suggested that it was too early to talk about the House speaker post, although the PDI-P had the right to appoint anyone from the party.

“It’s not about gender, but about competence,” Gerindra deputy chairman and House Deputy Speaker Fadli Zon said.

Political parties that were successful in the recent election will also contest the leadership posts of the People’s Consultative Assembly, the appointment mechanism of which will depend on political negotiations among the major parties at the House.

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