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

Ghina Ghaliya
The Jakarta Post

PREMIUM

Jakarta / Wed, October 9, 2019 / 05:45 pm

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)

Lawmakers 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, &nbs...

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