Without 30 Percent Woman Representation in Parliament, Political Party Is Prohibited to Participate in Election

In the Bill for the new Election Law, the Government reintroduce the 30% minimum woman representation as a requirement for political party to be able to participate in legislative election. Political party is prohibited to participate if they have less than 30% woman representation in the National Parliament (DPR), Provincial Parliament (DPRD Provinsi), and Regency/Municipality Parliament (DPRD Kabupaten/Kota).

Many election activists praise Government’s decision to reintroduce the regulation. Woman representation is one of many issues that has been advocated by election activists for a long time.

“The regulation is exactly the same with the regulation in the previous law, but it has been proven to be effective. In many electoral areas, some political parties were not allowed to participate in election because of this regulation. This will clearly encourage them to increase the number of their woman candidate,” says the Deputy Officer of the Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem), Khoirunnisa Agustyati.

However, Khoirunnisa argues, the Government still needs to introduce the provision on woman representation as contained in the Election Commission’s Regulation (PKPU) No.13/2013. In the regulation, it is stated that if a political party is unable to nominate at least 30 percent woman candidates in an electoral area, then the political party is prohibited to participate in said electoral area.

“This regulation in PKPU is more progressive than the one in the Election Law. We recommend the Government to adopt the regulation in the new Election Law,” says Khirunnisa.

In the new Election Law Bill, specifically in Article 216, the Government bestow authority to Election Commission and its subsidiaries in regional areas to inspect and verify political party regarding the minimum 30 percent requirement. KPU shall disqualify any political party unable to fulfill the requirement.