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Election Law revision hangs in balance
The proposed revision has been included in the House’s 2021 priority legislation program, but several political factions have retracted their support for the plan, reportedly following a meeting with President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.
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A foreign envoy participates in a briefing on the 2019 elections at the General Elections Commission (KPU) headquarters in Jakarta on April 2, 2019. Sixteen political parties are standing in the 2019 parliamentary elections. (JP/Seto Wardhana)
P
olitical factions at the House of Representatives have yet to decide on whether to drop a proposal to revise the Election Law that includes a plan to move forward several regional elections currently scheduled for 2024.
The proposed revision has been included in the House’s 2021 priority legislation program, but several political factions have retracted their support for the plan, reportedly following a meeting with President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.
The House failed to make a decision on the bill during the last preliminary meeting on Wednesday, putting its deliberations on hold until March 7.
“We are still accepting input from the public while political party factions in the House are still holding talks with each other,” House Deputy Speaker Sufmi Dasco said during Wednesday’s plenary meeting.
The proposal to revise the Election Law, enacted only three years ago, has divided political factions at the House. The proposed revisions concern a variety of crucial electoral issues, from the plan to bar members of outlawed organizations from running in elections to the legislative threshold and the presidential nomination threshold.
However, the debate over the bill apparently revolves around the question of whether the nation should hold all regional elections simultaneously in 2024, as stipulated in the prevailing Election Law, or move some of them forward to 2022 or 2023.
Read also: Local leaders face hurdle of delayed polls
