13 Strategic Issues in the Election Law According to the Government

The Government, represented by the Ministry of Home Affairs, has formulated the election law that will be used as the legal framework for the 2019 Concurrent Election. There are 13 issues considered to be the basis for the formulation. The 13 issues are related to the context of concurrent election, the improvement of the election management body, and the relation between the democracy in central and regional area.

“We have formulated the election law. There are 13 strategic issues,” says the representative from the Team of Expert Commissioned to Formulate the Election Law Bill, Dani Syarifudin Nawawi, in a public discussion “Evaluating Critical Issues in the Election Law Bill” in Cikini, Jakarta (08/21).

The first issue is the election system for the legislative election. There are four system alternatives available: 1) pure open-list proportional system; 2) pure closed-list proportional system; 3) limited open-list proportional system; and 4) limited closed-list proportional system.

The second issue is on the election stages. There are two alternatives: 1) the first election stage will start 22 months before the voting day (based on the schedule of the previous 2014 Legislative Election); and 2) the first election stage will start 24 months before the voting day (based on the schedule of the previous 2014 Presidential Election).

The third issue is on the requirements for candidacy. There are two alternatives: 1) the requirements is according to the Law No.8/2012; 2) the requirements for political party is enhanced: political party is required to have secretary office branch in 100% of total regency/municipality and 50% of total sub-district.

The fourth issue is on parliamentary threshold. There are two alternatives: 1) keep the threshold at 3.5%; 2) increase the threshold.

The fifth issue is on the method to converse votes to seats. There are two alternatives: 1) Using the Hare Quotas method, the votes are conversed by dividing the total legitimate votes with the number of seats available in electoral area; 2) Using the Saint Lague method, where the votes are conversed using the vote divisor index of 1, 2, 3, and so on.

The Sixth issue is on the rearrangement of electoral areas and seats allocation in new area. This issue is an inseparable attachment in the bill.

The seventh issue is on the president and vice-president candidacy. There are two alternatives: 1) all political parties are allowed to propose their own presidential candidate; 2) based on seats acquisition in the Parliament.

The eight issue is on anticipation for single candidacy. Any political party is allowed to establish an agreement with other political party to propose a candidate with the requirement maximum seats acquisition of 60% of total seats in the Parliament or to acquire maximum 65% of the total legitimate votes nationally in the previous legislative election.

The ninth issue is on the election campaign. The election campaign is conducted concurrently in all electoral areas regulated by KPU and in coordination with local authority.

The tenth issue is on the total number of voters per polling station. There are two alternatives: 1) the total voters shall not be exceeding 500 voters per polling station; 2) the total number of voters shall not be exceeding 400 voters per polling station.

The eleventh issue is on the ballot design that will be used in the election. There are two alternatives: 1) the ballot for presidential election will contain the photo of the president and vice-president candidates, and the ballot for the legislative election will contain the symbol of political parties and the list of candidates; 2) the ballot for the presidential election will contain the picture of the president-vice president candidates with its supporting political party, and the ballot for legislative election will contain the symbol of political parties and the list of candidates.

The twelfth issue is on the institutional enhancement of the election management body. This includes the authority and management of the Election Commission (KPU), the Election Organizers Honor Council (DKPP), and the Election Monitoring Body (Bawaslu).

The enhancement of KPU: 1) the age of the member is between 45 to 65 years old; 2) implementing institutional career system (not based on local administration), and rearranging organizational structure of KPU at the Special Capital Region and Special Region level; raising the position of the KPU secretary general as equal with echelon 1A with four deputies; 3) Providing more authority to the central KPU to impose administrative sanction to provincial and regency/municipal KPU.

The enhancement of Bawaslu: 1) the age of the member is between 45 to 65 years old; 2) implementing institutional career system (not based on local administration), and rearranging organizational structure at the central, provincial, and regency/municipality level; raising the position of the Bawaslu secretary general as equal with echelon 1A with three deputies; 3) restructuring the Voting Monitoring Commitee; and

4) Providing more authority: to examine violations, to resolve disputes, to recommend KPU to impose administrative sanction; to impose administrative sanction without having to ask for recommendation from DKPP to provincial Bawaslu and Election Monitoring Committees (Panwaslu) in regency/municipality; to appoint members for Bawaslu in province; to establish the device for prosecution and investigation to handle electoral violations; and to act as the registration hub for electoral observation activity, both at the national and international level.

The enhancement of DKPP: the age of the member is between 55 to 70 years old, and the member is public official in a strategic position; establishing the DKPP secretariat (not ex officio of the Bawaslu secretariat); rearranging organizational structure of DKPP by raising the position of the DKPP secretary general as equal with echelon 1A with three bureaus; adding the authority of DKPP to act as the Election Court to handle violations and disputes.

The thirteenth issue is on the role of Government and local administration. It is mandatory for the election organizers, the Government, and local administrations to provide helps, supports, and facilities in accordance with the laws and regulations to ensure that they can perform their duties, powers, and responsibilities properly. []

USEP HASAN SADIKIN