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House legislation body drops Election Law revision from this year's priority list
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Poll prep: Workers from the Depok office of the General Elections Commission (KPU) stack ballot boxes at a warehouse in Cimanggis district, Depok, West Java, on Nov. 25, 2020, ahead of regional elections held on Dec. 9, 2020. (JP/P.J. Leo)
S
ome regional leaders named as potential candidates for the 2024 presidential election may find their odds narrowing as the House of Representatives Legislation Body (Baleg) has decided that a revision of the Election Law is not urgent.
According to the prevailing law, the regional elections are to be held concurrently with presidential and legislative elections.
In a hearing on Tuesday, Baleg, the Regional Representatives Council (DPD) and the government agreed to remove a planned revision of the Election Law from the priority list of this year’s National Legislation Program (Prolegnas).
This comes after they had agreed in a hearing on Jan. 14 on a draft of the priority list that included a plan to revise the Election Law. However, they argued on Tuesday that it would be better to keep the prevailing regulations, as the country needed to avoid frequent changes to its election rules.
In the past years, the legislative body regularly revised the Election Law several years before legislative and presidential elections. The latest revision of the law was enacted roughly four years ago.
“[The frequent amendment of the Election law] has created erratic elections. We cannot evaluate and improve [the electoral system], because it always changes,” Gerindra Party lawmaker Heri Gunawan said in Tuesday’s hearing.
Read also: Election Law revision hangs in balance
