Former People’s Consultative Assembly speaker Amien Rais, who late last year established the Islam-based Ummah Party, recently made a controversial remark alleging a plan was in place to revise the Constitution to allow presidents and vice presidents to be elected for a third term.

In 2019 Assembly Speaker Bambang Soesatyo, a Golkar Party politician, indicated that he would seek limited amendments to the Constitution to revive the Assembly’s authority to set the direction of national development strategy through the long-defunct policy framework (GBHN).

The discussion on constitutional amendments then snowballed to other topics, including extending the presidential term limit and scrapping direct presidential elections.

This prompted Jokowi, who was initially open to the idea of a limited amendment, to issue a strong rejection of any amendment proposals, likening them to “a slap in the face”.

It was progovernment party the NasDems that raised the idea of increasing the presidential tenure from two to three five-year terms.

The idea of a constitutional amendment was raised in the second term of then-president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono but it was initiated by the Regional Representatives Council, which sought stronger legislative authority to be on equal footing with the House of Representatives.

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