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More female lawmakers to secure seats in House

The next House of Representatives is expected to be more aware about gender-based issues and to bring about improvements in addressing the gender gap, as the 2019 legislative election saw a higher percentage of women being elected to the House

Nurul Fitri Ramadhani and Arya Dipa (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta/Bandung
Wed, May 29, 2019

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More female lawmakers to secure seats in House

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he next House of Representatives is expected to be more aware about gender-based issues and to bring about improvements in addressing the gender gap, as the 2019 legislative election saw a higher percentage of women being elected to the House.

A calculation by the University of Indonesia’s Center for Political Studies (Puskapol UI) shows that the percentage of female lawmakers expected to sit in the House for the 2019-2024 term has risen to 20.5 percent from 17 percent following the 2014 election. That is the highest figure since the 2004 election.

Puskapol UI executive director Aditya Perdana said 53 percent of the elected female lawmakers were activists and senior politicians, and 41 percent appeared to be affiliated to political dynasties. The remaining 6 percent comprise professionals making their debut in the House.

“The number of elected female lawmakers has significantly increased. We estimate that they will occupy 118 [out of a total 575 seats],” he said recently.

The study shows that the NasDem Party has the largest proportion of female representatives, accounting for 32.2 percent out of 59 seats it secured in the election. The percentage is beyond the target set by the 2017 Election Law, which obliges each political party to have at least 30 percent female representation. According to the final vote tally by the General Elections Commission (KPU), NasDem is the fourth largest party at the House.

“The high number of female lawmakers from NasDem shows that the party seriously screened and chosen qualified female candidates whose characters and capability could attract voters,” NasDem executive Irma Suryani Chaniago said.

The KPU has yet to announce the names of legislative candidates who will secure seats in the House as it is still awaiting the settlement of election disputes at the Constitutional Court, but almost all political parties have made their own calculations.

The Golkar Party, predicted to be the second-largest party in the house, secured 12.31 percent of the national vote with 85 seats.

Party executive Hetifah Sjaifudian claimed that 22 percent, 19 of the total seats, will be occupied by women including senior politicians Meutya Hafidz and Nurul Arifin, as well as Puteri Komarudin, daughter of senior Golkar member and former House speaker Ade Komarudin.

“We were trying to improve female representation in politics because there are a lot of public policies that need women’s perspectives,” Hetifah said.

In terms of regions, Puskapol UI data show that Bengkulu is the region with the highest proportion of elected female lawmakers, with 75 percent of the total number of successful candidates in the 2019 election being women, followed by North Sulawesi and North Maluku, both with 66 percent.

However, West Java, the country’s most populous province, will be represented by only 28 female lawmakers in the House, most of whom are incumbents, such as Ledia Hanifah Amaliah from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and Rachel Maryam from the Gerindra Party, and are affiliated to political dynasties, according data from the regional KPU.

Gender and political analyst from UI Ani Widyani Soetjipto said female lawmakers were expected to help change conditions in the country, where there were still a lot of regulations that discriminate against women.

“We’re glad to learn about their presence in the House. But when we’re talking about female representatives, it’s not only about quantity, but also substance, how they can effectively represent women’s aspirations and how they fight for marginal groups and women,” Ani said.

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