Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – Just a day after the House of Representatives passed the amended election law, calls have been mounting to challenge some articles and bring them for a judicial review.

Regional Representatives Council (DPD) member I Wayan Sudirta from Bali has encouraged fellow lawmakers to unite and to file for judicial review because the law contravenes regional autonomy.

"I encourage lawmakers in the regions to fight against the mandatory 3.5 percent legislative threshold because it negates the regions's votes. It's unfair as it will negate votes gathered all around the regions when they fail to fulfill the minimum percentage. It will also drive minor parties out of the country's political system," he said Friday during a discussion at the House.

Article 208 of the newly amended election law mandates political parties contesting the election to meet a legislative threshold of 3.5 percent nationwide in order to secure seats at the House and local councils (DPRD) at the provincial and municipal level.

Sudirta said Article 131, which regulates campaign finance, was also subject to judicial review because it could be used for money laundering. The article limits individual campaign donations to Rp 1 billion (US$109,000), and organizational donations, including corporations and nongovernmental institutions to no more than Rp 7.5 billion.

"For me, the article could lead to money laundering. Individual contributions should've been lower, just like at regional councils that allow a maximum of Rp 250 million," Sudirta said, adding that lawmakers were still studying the entire law to collect all "problematic" articles to be challenged.

Sudirta said he had spoken with several lawmakers, including Arief Wibowo from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and Nurul Arifin from the Golkar Party, about the issue.

Arief Wibowo, who chaired the committee that deliberated the amended election law, expressed his disappointment over the adoption of the open-list system, the 3.5 percent legislative threshold nationwide, the selection of a pure quota vote counting mechanism, also known as the Hare system.

"Such a mechanism might not only disadvantage nonlegislative parties, but also minor parties in the legislature. The approved open-list system might also result in poor-quality leaders as it will only favor either rich or well-known candidates," he said after the session.

Arief's concern about the possibility of an open-list system encouraging "lower quality" candidates has been supported as celebrities have started to contact political parties to apply to be cadres.

"Two celebrities have contacted me to promote themselves," Martin Hutabarat from the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) said, refusing to disclose their names.

"I believe more celebrities will follow because of such an electoral system. I assume things will get worse because rich people might join the trend," he said.

Echoing her fellow legislators, Nurul Arifin of the Golkar Party has also expressed her disappointment over the new law saying the 1.5 years the committee spent on the bill's deliberation was useless as the new election law offers no significant changes from the old one, which was used as the basis for the 2009 legislative and presidential elections.

"I am so disappointed. Therefore, I do hope there will be movement to file a judicial review and I will support the movement. It will be very difficult for a political party to initiate such a movement though," she said at a discussion.

According to political analyst Burhanuddin Muhtadi, the amended election bill will not offer any progressive measures for Indonesia's political system.

"It's obvious that parties care about nothing but their own interests in the country's political arena, because the protracted debate during the deliberation of the bill did not discuss anything that will directly impact the lives of the people. The newly amended law doesn't regulate campaign spending, which will be the source of political corruption and will likely cost the state budget. The law has obviously neglected the public's interests," he said.