Antara, Jakarta – The Regional Representatives Council (DPD) Deputy Speaker Sultan Bachtiar Najamudin asked President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo to immediately make a firm response to issues regarding the postponement of the 2024 general elections.
Sultan opined that the president's voice is necessary to end the issue which is troubling the people.
"The president must immediately reduce the political polarization that is increasingly taking up the public's attention and energy. We hope that Pak Jokowi's political and statesmanship stance that is against the election postponement will end this ridiculous issue," said Sultan in a statement in Jakarta, Monday, Feb. 28.
He also said that the President certainly does not want political and social polarization that could ignite horizontal conflict and worsen democracy due to the issue which also has the potential to extend the president's term of office.
To date, requests for the election to be postponed were voiced by three chairmen of the government coalition parties in the past week. They are Muhaimin Iskandar (PKB), Airlangga Hartarto (Golkar) and Zulkifli Hasan (PAN).
They said the reasons include the lingering COVID-19 pandemic which burdens the national economy and the people's will.
The requests met with rejections, starting from civil society, legal experts, up to political figures including DPR Deputy Speaker La Nyalla Mahmud Mattalitti as it violates the 1945 Constitution and harms democracy.
President Jokowi has not yet spoken directly in response to the issue. On previous occasions, however, he claimed he did not want the term of the office to be extended.