JAKARTA | KBA Change advocate Anies Baswedan appreciates the massive community movement from various elements in guarding the Constitutional Court’s decision number 60/PUU-XXII/2024 related to last week’s lawsuit on the Local Head Election Law (Pilkada Law).
The success in guarding the MK decision, which lowers the threshold for nominating local heads, gives many candidates the opportunity to emerge in the 2024 simultaneous local elections. Thus, the quality of democracy in Indonesia will improve.
“In many regions, there are candidates desired by the public whose paths were previously blocked, then opened. Why? Because the elites are forced by the constitution to provide a way,” Anies explained through his YouTube account, Friday, August 30, 2024.
“And this is an opportunity for us to improve the quality of democracy. The hope is later, the quality of governance across Indonesia. So, the facility provided by the MK can be utilized,” he continued.
However, he regrets that political parties in some areas did not utilize the MK decision. Thus, the candidates that emerged remain limited and do not reflect the actual aspirations of the community.
“Because this local election is a regional level election. It should reflect the aspirations of the regions, not the aspirations at the top, national. But in reality, not everything can always run like that,” he firmly stated.
As known, last Tuesday, through decision number 60/PUU-XXII/2024 related to the Pilkada Law filed by the Labor Party and Gelora, MK set the threshold for nominating local heads at 20 percent of DPRD seats or 25 percent of valid votes from legislative elections contained in Article 40 paragraph (1) of the Pilkada Law as inapplicable.
MK changed the threshold for nominating local heads for political parties or coalitions ranging from 6.5-10 percent of valid votes from elections adjusted to the number of voters in each region.
However, a day later, the DPR through Baleg attempted to annul it through a revision of the Pilkada Law. The DPR accommodated the MK decision to apply only to parties that do not have seats in the DPRD. Meanwhile, parties that have seats in the DPRD must still meet at least 20 percent of the seats in the DPRD or 25 percent of valid votes in the election if nominating a candidate.
Through the massive movement from various community elements guarding the MK decision, the revision of the Pilkada Law that was to be passed on Thursday, August 22, 2024, was successfully thwarted. Thus, the MK decision becomes a reference in the implementation of the 2024 simultaneous local elections.
Unfortunately, not all political parties that meet the threshold nominate their own champions. For example, the Jakarta gubernatorial election is only participated by two candidate pairs from political parties. Although there are 8 parties that meet the nomination threshold.
Even many regions have only one candidate pair or a single candidate. KPU RI Technical Division Chairman Idham Holik said there are 48 regions in the 2024 simultaneous local elections that have a single candidate.
“Of the 37 provinces, there is only one that has a single candidate pair, which is in West Papua,” said Idham, as reported by ANTARA today. (kba)
Political Parties Not Utilizing MK Decision 60 Proof of Non-Aspirational Nature
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Gedung Mahkamah Konstitusi. (Foto: Mahkamah Konstitusi)
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