Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – After a protracted debate, the House of Representatives passed an amended election law on Thursday, mandating that the 2014 election be conducted with an open-list electoral system with a 3.5 percent legislative threshold.
The amended law also authorizes the implementation of a pure quota vote-counting mechanism to transform votes into seats both in the House and the Regional House of Representatives (DPRD), a mechanism deemed less favorable to major political parties.
The law also established an open-list electoral system that will allow voters to cast their ballots for individual candidates rather than political parties.
However, contradicting a pure quota vote-counting mechanism, which will improve access for minor political parties to legislative seats, a 3.5-percent legislative threshold applied nationally will likely drive minor parties out of the country's political system.
"The newly approved bill doesn't bring about any significant changes compared to the old one. Therefore, it will not create an effective, simple, and multi-party presidential system – the exact reason why we drew up this new bill in the first place," said lawmaker Arief Wibowo, who chaired the House's committee to deliberate the bill.
Arief said the open-list system would likely fail to promote quality political candidates because the mechanism would only favor either rich or well-known candidates.
"The open-list system will also encourage money politics because there will be uncontrollable campaign spending, which potentially will cost the state budget. I predict that this will also intensify internal conflicts within parties. But the House has approved the bill and I must respect the decision," said Arief of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).
The PDI-P, together with the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and the National Awakening Party (PKB), proposed a closed-list system for future elections, arguing that it would give incentives to produce quality leaders as it would allow voters to pick from a list of political parties, which would later be entrusted to select their best candidates for the legislative seats.
Other factions, the Democratic Party, the Golkar Party, the National Mandate Party (PAN), the United Development Party (PPP), the People's Conscience Party (Hanura) and the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) had jointly promoted an open-list system.
A late-night lobbying session on Wednesday brought all factions to agreement on an open-list system and a 3.5 percent legislative threshold. The session, however, failed to reach a conclusion on to which vote-counting mechanism should be used in future elections.
House political factions finally agreed to bring the last contentious issue to a vote in the Tuesday plenary session. In the voting session, lawmakers had to choose between the pure quota vote-counting system, which will be advantageous for smaller parties, or a Webster vote-counting system.
In the voting session, 342 lawmakers, 140 from the Democratic Party, 54 from PKS, 42 from PAN, 37 from PPP, 28 from PKB, 24 from Gerindra, and 17 from Hanura, voted for the pure quota system.
Only 188 lawmakers, 97 from the Golkar Party and 91 from the PDI-P faction endorsed the alternative. The Democratic Party had expected that Golkar, one of members of the ruling coalition, would vote for the pure quota system.
PKS executives denied that their support for a pure quota system was aimed at mending its strained relationship with the Democratic Party following the its decision to stand against the fuel-price hike.
"Our choices have nothing to do with the coalition. We don't aim to win back the coalition's trust. Our decision reflects our concern for the country's politics, which undoubtedly will have impacts on people's lives," PKS president Luthfi Hasan Ishaaq said.
Key articles of revised election law
Article 5:
The election will apply an open-list system to vote for legislators at the House of Representatives (DPR) and local councils (DPRD) at the provincial and municipal level.
Article 6:
a. The General Elections Commission (KPU) is authorized to organize the election.
b. The Election Supervisory Body (Bawaslu) is authorized to monitor the electoral process.
Article 22:
A requirement of between three and 10 seats within a district is mandatory to secure seats at the DPR.
Article 24:
A requirement of between three and 12 seats within a district is mandatory to secure seats in the DPRD.
Article 208:
Political parties participating in the election must meet a legislative threshold at 3.5 percent nationwide in order to secure seats at the DPR and the DPRD.
Article 209:
Political parties will be eliminated from the list if they fail to secure the minimum percentage of votes.