Febriamy Hutapea – An influential state-funded defense think tank advocates a tighter requirement for political parties that seek to secure seats in the House of Representatives.
National Resilience Institute (Lemhanas) governor Muladi on Monday suggested that the electoral threshold be increased from the current 2.5 percent of the vote to 10 percent to trim the number of parties that win representation in the House.
"The parties that can enter the House will be reduced through raising the electoral threshold to 10 percent," Muladi said during a hearing with House Commission I overseeing defense, information, foreign and political affairs.
According to Muladi, the country has conducted 500 regional elections in three years, which he said was too many and costly. He claimed that a more simple system in conducting the regional, national and presidential elections was necessary to decrease the impact on the state budget.
He said the recent ruling by the Constitutional Court, that paved the way for a majority-vote system in the April legislative election, had had a serious impact on Indonesia's political parties as it was applied in the absence of a transition process.
He said that a majority-vote system made the election too costly because parties and legislative candidates had to spend too much money during their campaigns to attract voters.
He said the court decision, which was issued only months before the April legislative election, did not give political parties enough time to ensure they provided qualified candidates.
He cited the House Commission I as a good example of this lack of preparation, because only eight of the about 50 members had been able to secure reelection.
He claimed that the new system benefited candidates who may not have the capability to do the job but had the money to bankroll their campaigns.
Legislator Sidarto Danusubroto from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, or PDI-P, said that he was worried about the current majority-vote system, which made for an unhealthy political situation. "Many fellow legislators who are smart were eliminated because of the difficult and costly election system," Sidarto said.
Legislator Andreas Pareira, who is also from PDI-P, said that the majority-vote system had changed the legislative candidates' attitude because of the different system of competition.
The House of Representatives is often rated as one Indonesia's most corrupt institutions. A number of high-profile corruption cases have uncovered the illicit costs of passing even the most basic pieces of legislation.