Camelia Pasandaran – After few signals that the government is ready or willing to issue an emergency regulation to revise the elections law, lawmakers appear to be taking matters into their own hands.

"There are only two options, the emergency regulation or a limited revision of the law," Chozin Chumaidy, a House of Representatives member from the United Development Party, or PPP, said at a discussion on election regulations. He said lawmakers were now lobbying factions in the House, or DPR, to revise the article on elected legislative candidates that the Constitutional Court struck down last month.

The court did away with an article in the elections law that guaranteed legislative candidates a seat if they garnered 30 percent of the vote division number, or BPP.

The BPP is calculated by dividing total votes by the number of seats in an electoral region. If candidates fell short of the 30 percent mark, the seats would be given to the top ranked candidates on a party's candidates list.

In annulling the article, the court replaced it with a majority vote system. With the annulment in need of legislation to make the change formal, the court stated that the General Elections Commission, or KPU, had jurisdiction to issue its own regulations.

The commission, however, seemed to be confused by the message. "We were waiting for the emergency regulation" from the government, KPU member I Gusti Putu Artha said. "But as we cannot wait too long, we will issue a KPU regulation soon, but we hope that the government will help make the regulation stronger by issuing the emergency measure."

Irman Putra Sidin, an administrative law expert, criticized what he called the KPU's indecisive behavior.

"The KPU shouldn't take orders from any other institution, as it is a self-regulating and independent body," Irman said. "It is not necessary to depend on an emergency regulation, as this would suggest the KPU was under the government."

Irman also criticized the House for proposing a limited revision on the elections law.

"It's not that complex for the House to issue a revision of the elections law," he said. "But political parties in the House want to maintain an oligarchic system. Most of the lawmakers are afraid that they won't be elected if we use a majority vote system."

Chozin, however, said that without government support "it would return to the old system," and that a KPU regulation would be prone to dispute. "Many candidates would challenge the regulation," he said.