Former deputy law and human rights minister Denny Indrayana said on Wednesday that a representative of a certain group had told Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Mahfud MD of its readiness to push for a special session of the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) to amend the Constitution and pave the way for an extension of Jokowi’s term.

Denny, who served in the administration of former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of the opposition Democratic Party, said at a livestreamed press briefing that he had heard the information from Mahfud during a visit to his private residence last week.

“There is indeed a politician, whose name and party I don't need to mention, who conveyed to Mahfud that he and his group were ready to hold a special MPR session to push for a term extension for the President, so that the 2024 election would no longer be needed,” Denny said.

“The scenario would be to hold a special MPR session while President Jokowi was on a state visit abroad.”

The push for an election delay intensified last year after leaders from three pro-government parties – the Golkar Party, National Awakening Party (PKB) and National Mandate Party (PAN) – publicly proposed that the 2024 elections be delayed, allegedly at the behest of President Jokowi’s inner circle.

The idea was welcomed by Jokowi’s supporter groups, who called for the Constitution to be amended to allow presidents to stay in office for three consecutive terms instead of two, paving the way for Jokowi to run again in 2024.

Read also: Push for Jokowi’s term extension intensifies

Studies on a possible election delay and presidential term extension were included in a January crisis mitigation report conducted by the National Resilience Institute (Lemhannas), a government think tank. Lemhannas governor Andi Widjajanto, who served as Jokowi’s Cabinet secretary during the President’s first term in office, said the report was made at “the request of the President himself” and was submitted to him on Wednesday.

At the Lemhannas leadership meeting on Wednesday, Mahfud, who was a keynote speaker for the event, dismissed allegations that the government was behind the continued push for a presidential term extension.

The government had ensured that the country would have a general election in 2024, he claimed, adding that Jokowi had asked his aides to work with the General Elections Commission (KPU) to help the 2024 election run as scheduled.

Even so, Mahfud, a former Constitutional Court chief justice, said the government would keep providing space for debate over a possible term extension or election delay.

“Conveying one’s aspirations doesn’t violate the law,” he said, as quoted by Tempo. “We can’t prevent political party leaders or groups from certain communities from saying that [the presidential term] should be extended. That’s not against the law.”

Constitutional expert Feri Amsari called the government’s “permissive stance” on the term extension and election delay proposal “unwise” and “constitutionally unethical”, noting that it had created a sense of uncertainty for voters.

“The government should have voiced its commitment not to discuss such matters in the lead-up to the 2024 elections. This would have helped to ensure that the upcoming elections were well prepared without being overshadowed by suggestions that potentially violated the law,” Feri said.

Read also: Three new parties to join 2024 race: KPU

Political researcher Firman Noor of the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) said that paving the way to a possible constitutional violation would “undermine the essence of democracy that we have all agreed upon”.

“Those agreements stem from our bitter past experience during which the country was controlled by a regime that extended its power. Have you not learned from the past?” Firman added.

On Tuesday, the Constitutional Court rejected a petition to annul provisions in the 2017 Election Law that bar a president from seeking a third term. The petition was filed by top members of the Berkarya Party, which failed to meet the requirements to field candidates for the 2024 elections.

-- Nur Janti contributed to the story.