House extends talks on presidential election bill

Margareth S. Aritonang, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | National | Thu, April 11 2013, 8:17 AM

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A deadlock between political factions at the House of Representatives over a plan to amend Law No. 42/2008 on presidential elections has forced the House Legislation Body (Baleg) to extend talks on the bill to August this year.

After months of discussions and lobbying, majority factions including the three main political parties, the Democratic Party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the Golkar Party, stuck to their guns and argued against amending the law.

The major political factions are concerned that a lowered threshold would reduce their chance of winning the 2014 election.

“It’s not the right time to revise the law because lawmakers are preoccupied with preparing for the legislative election. We won’t have enough time to revise it. To force the House to make a revision [now] would be pointless,” PDI-P lawmaker Honing Sanny told a Baleg meeting on Wednesday.

Members of Baleg from the Democratic Party, Golkar, the National Mandate Party (PAN) and the National Awakening Party (PKB) backed the PDI-P’s position.

“We share the same view that we should not discuss an amendment to the law,” Taufiq Hidayat of the Golkar Party said.

The current Presidential Election Law stipulates that in order to nominate a presidential candidate, a political party or a coalition of parties must secure 20 percent of seats in the House or win 25 percent of the popular vote in the legislative election.

Smaller political parties, including the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) and the People’s Conscience Party (Hanura) have called the provision unconstitutional, however, as it could effectively block the candidacy of the two parties’ respective leaders, Lt. Gen. (ret.) Prabowo Subianto and Gen. (ret.) Wiranto.

“The high presidential threshold will only promote the same old individuals for the presidential election. It will shut out popular figures, such as Pak Prabowo, from the contest. So, we believe that revising the current law is a must,” Gerindra lawmaker Martin Hutabarat said.

Prabowo has consistently topped the lists of the most electable presidential candidates.

The Indonesian Network Election Survey (INES) found that Prabowo had an electability rating of 39.8 percent in March this year, up from 19.8 in October last year.

Gerindra has also begun to gain popularity. INES found that support for the party had grown from 14 percent in October last year to 18 percent in March. Support for Golkar, meanwhile, continues to drop due to graft cases involving their politicians.

Several other surveys, including one by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), have found that Prabowo was the most electable candidate for the next presidential election.

Meanwhile, other political parties in the House have proposed that a new provision be added to the bill.

The Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and the United Development Party (PPP) have called for the inclusion of a provision that would make it mandatory for the country’s next president to leave his or her position in a political party.

“We have seen what happens when a president is preoccupied with his party and abandons his main duties. It is, therefore, crucially important to force the next elected president, whomever that might be, to relinquish his or her position in a party and focus on their job as leader of the country,” PPP lawmaker Ahmad Yani said.

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