Government: There is No Methodological Justification for Adding Parliamentary Seats

Members of the Special Committee for the new Elections Law Bill propose an idea to increase the total number of seats in Parliament from 560 to 579 seats. The exact number of the addition was deduced after a simulation process conducted by the Special Committee and the government. Based on the simulation process, the Committee concluded that there are 19 seats in Local Parliament that should be reallocated to the National Parliament. However, members of the Parliament objects to the idea of reallocation. According to them, decreasing the number of seats in local parliament will cause political instability.

The government, represented by the Ministry of Home Affairs, admits that they are not able to find any methodological justification to increase the total number of seats of the National Parliament. Adding seats to the Parliament is not a solution to the representation problem.

“We have no methodological justification to add another 19 seats the Parliament, because members of the Parliament are not willing to reduce seats in over-represented local parliaments,” says the General Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Yuswandi A. Temenggung, in Jakarta (05/29).

The simulation process conducted by the members of the Special Committee and the government uses total number of population and large of area as variables. Based on the simulation, it is concluded that there should be an increase of 19 seats for the national parliament, but the addition should be taken from several over-represented local parliaments.

In response to that, the Chief of the Special Committee for the new Elections Law Bill, Yandri Susanto, says that he and his team are not willing to reduce the number of seats in local parliaments, and that is final decision.