Jakarta, IndonesiaSentinel.com — The Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR RI) was forced to delay the approval of the Regional Elections Bill (RUU Pilkada) during a plenary session on Thursday, August 22, 2024, after failing to meet the required quorum.
Deputy Speaker Sufmi Dasco Ahmad, who led the session, announced that only 89 members were present, while 87 others had reported their absence. With the attendance falling short of the necessary quorum, the session was adjourned.
“As a result, we will reschedule the plenary session after consulting the Steering Committee (Bamus) since the quorum was not met,” Dasco stated, marking the decision by striking the gavel.
Earlier, Dasco had already postponed the session, which was initially scheduled to start at around 9:30 AM, allowing additional time to meet the quorum. The decision to suspend the session was in line with Article 281, Section 3 of the DPR RI’s procedural rules, which permits a delay of up to 30 minutes if the quorum is not reached.
After the allotted time, the number of present members remained insufficient, necessitating the postponement of the bill’s approval until the next plenary session, which will be rescheduled.
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Previously, the “Peringatan Darurat” (Emergency Warning) poster featuring the blue Garuda emblem has rapidly gone viral on social media following the Indonesian House of Representatives’ (DPR RI) decision, through a Legislative Body (Baleg) meeting with the government, to disregard a Constitutional Court (MK) ruling related to the 2024 regional elections (Pilkada).
This Emergency Warning calls upon students and the broader Indonesian public to resist the arbitrary actions of the DPR and the government in determining regulations, particularly when these decisions ignore the Constitutional Court’s rulings, which are supposed to be the highest legal authority in the country.
Two main issues have driven the emergence of this Emergency Warning. First is the threshold for political parties nominating regional leaders, and second is the age limit for candidates for regional head positions at both provincial and district/city levels.
Party Threshold for Nomination
The DPR’s Legislative Body (Baleg) Working Committee on the revision of the Pilkada Law disregarded the Constitutional Court’s Decision No. 60/PUU-XXII/2024. As a result, the nomination threshold for regional heads from all political parties participating in the elections has been relaxed.
However, this relaxation only applies to political parties that do not hold seats in the Regional Legislative Councils (DPRD). This provision was added as an additional clause to Article 40 of the revised Pilkada Law, which was discussed by the Baleg DPR Working Committee in just about three hours.
Meanwhile, Article 40 paragraph (1) of the Pilkada Law, which maintains a 20% threshold of DPRD seats or 25% of valid votes from the previous legislative election, remains in effect for political parties that have seats in parliament.
This decision by Baleg DPR contradicts the Constitutional Court’s ruling, which amended the nomination threshold for regional heads (Pilkada), as established in Decision No. 60/PUU-XXII/2024, filed by the Labor Party and the Gelora Party.
“Granting the petitioners’ request partially,” said Chief Justice Suhartoyo during the reading of the verdict on Tuesday, August 20, 2024.
In its ruling, the Constitutional Court decided that the nomination threshold for regional heads from political parties would no longer be based on 25% of the total votes for the political party or coalition from the previous DPRD legislative elections, or 20% of DPRD seats.
The court ruled that the nomination threshold for regional heads from political parties should be equal to the threshold for independent candidates as stipulated in Articles 41 and 42 of the Pilkada Law.
(Agung)
