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Civil group challenges legislative threshold at court
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Officials prepare ballot boxes and other voting materials in Jakarta ahead of the 2019 presidential and legislative elections. (AFP/Bay Ismoyo)
Election watchdog the Association of Elections and Democracy (Perludem) is challenging a provision on the legislative threshold at the Constitutional Court, asserting that the provision was made without clear and transparent scientific grounds and, therefore, undermines democracy.
The disputed provision in the 2017 General Elections Law stipulates that all political parties competing in the elections must secure at least 4 percent of the national vote in order to acquire seats at the House of Representatives.
Perludem is demanding that the court order lawmakers to include a measurable, rational and transparent formula for determining the threshold in the provision.
The petition was filed last Thursday, as major parties in the House are seeking to raise the requirement to acquire seats in the House from 4 percent of the vote to 7 percent, in a draft bill to revise the law for the next elections in 2024.
“The House’s decision to set the threshold [in the 2017 law] seemed to be lacking public transparency and accountability. That’s why we filed the petition with the Constitutional Court,” Perludem executive director Titi Anggraini said.
Such a requirement was implemented for the first time in the 2009 legislative elections, which set the threshold at 2.5 percent of the national vote. Nine out of 38 parties competing in the elections at that time managed to send representatives to the House.
Lawmakers have since gradually increased the threshold to 3.5 percent in the 2014 polls and 4 percent in 2019.
