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Parties demand key seats in House, Cabinet distributed based on April election results

Puan asserted that she would wait for feedback from the parties before deciding on the distribution of posts.

Ghina Ghaliya (The Jakarta Post)
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Wed, October 9, 2019 Published on Oct. 8, 2019 Published on 2019-10-08T18:16:52+07:00

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Newly sworn-in House of Representative Speaker Puan Maharani (center) alongside her deputies (from left to right) Azis Syamsuddin (Golkar), Sufmi Dasco Ahmad (Gerindra), Rachmat Gobel (Nasdem) and Muhaimin Iskandar (PKB) attend a plenary meeting in the House chamber on Oct.1. Newly sworn-in House of Representative Speaker Puan Maharani (center) alongside her deputies (from left to right) Azis Syamsuddin (Golkar), Sufmi Dasco Ahmad (Gerindra), Rachmat Gobel (Nasdem) and Muhaimin Iskandar (PKB) attend a plenary meeting in the House chamber on Oct.1. (JP/Seto Wardhana)

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awmakers are mulling over distributing top positions in House commissions and bodies based on the results of the April legislative elections, meaning that the political party with the least votes will get the fewest seats on the House's apparatus council.

House Speaker Puan Maharani of the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the winner of the April legislative race, said such a distribution method would prevent “commotion” among parties at the beginning of the House term, which was an issue five years ago.  

Puan referred to a conflict within the House at the beginning of its 2014-2019 period, when all its commissions and bodies were led by lawmakers of parties in the coalition supporting  candidate pair Prabowo Subianto and Hatta Rajasa during the 2014 presidential election, such as the Golkar Party,  the Gerindra Party, the National Mandate Party (PAN), the United Development Party (PPP).

The PDI-P, as the legislative election winner, did not obtain any seats, and neither did other parties in the coalition supporting President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and Jusuf Kalla, such as the National Awakening Party (PKB), the NasDem Party and the Hanura Party.

A clash occurred at the time as the majority of seats were obtained by parties outside Jokowi’s coalition. The tables have now turned. The ruling coalition controls 60 percent of  seats in the House.

“The leader and deputy posts will be distributed proportionally, according to the number of seats gained in the election,” Puan said.

"I hope [ a political clash] does not happen again […] It is a historical wound that messed up the democratic process,” she said.

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