The Constitutional Court in December last year ruled to give the KPU the sole authority to arrange electoral districts through KPU regulations (PKPUs) after a group of election activists filed a petition to challenge the General Elections Law, which said otherwise.

The process must uphold the proportionality principle, among others, between the allocation of seats and the populations in the provinces, the ruling stated.

The ruling is a departure from a provision in the election law, which stipulated that such authority fell under the scope of lawmakers at the House of Representatives. This has garnered praise from election watchdogs, which described it as a “remarkable ruling” that could minimize conflict of interests among lawmakers who came from political parties participating in the race.

The KPU however has drawn criticism after it decided not to redraw the whole electoral districts in its draft of the regulation, aside from including a new set of electoral districts and the numbers of legislative seats in four new provinces in Papua Island up for grabs in 2024. The regulation is expected to be issued by Thursday.

Read also: Policymakers consider Perppu to redraw Papua's electoral districts

The planned regulation got the nod from lawmakers of House Commission II, overseeing home affairs and the government, during a meeting on Tuesday. This came weeks after lawmakers across factions asked the election organizer to not redraw the electoral districts, citing a time-consuming negotiation it would take amid preceding election stages.

"There would be conflicting interests, making it difficult to find any common ground. It would take a long time, so there is concern that it will disrupt the [election] stages,” House Commission II chairman Ahmad Doli of Golkar Party said on Jan. 13.

Adopting a new map of electoral districts would change the distribution of constituencies, in which parties would gain or lose their seats and support among their voter bases.

KPU chairman Hasyim Asy'ari said on Monday there would be 84 electoral districts stipulated in the draft, which already included electoral districts in the new provinces in Papua and West Papua, an increase from 80 districts stipulated in the General Elections Law.

The inclusion of the four new administrative regions would also change the number of legislative seats, from currently 575 to 580 seats in 2024.

Read also: Policymakers consider Perppu to redraw Papua's electoral districts

The Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem) criticized the KPU for not complying with the Constitutional Court’s ruling, saying that the election organizer needs to be bolder in making its independent decision without bowing to the House’s preference. Perludem was the petitioner in the case at the court.

“The court has been clear that the decision-making process falls fully under the authority of the KPU,” Heroik Pratama of Perludem told The Jakarta Post.

“The Constitutional Court's decision still encourages the KPU to consult with the House, but the court also stressed that the consultation was non-binding in nature. So, the KPU does not have to take everything that lawmakers recommend."

Moreover, not redrawing electoral districts, Heroik said, would maintain “problematic arrangement of electoral districts that are both still underrepresented and overrepresented in some parts of the country”.

Perludem previously said that it would challenge the KPU regulation to the Supreme Court should the election organizer bow to lawmakers’ demand to adopt the electoral districts used in previous elections.

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