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House seeks to provide 'certainty', won’t allow power vacuum over election ruling
The House of Representatives will ensure there is no vacuum of power and pledges to give a sense of certainty in the organizing of the upcoming elections despite a controversial court ruling to delay the 2024 polls by more than two years, a deputy speaker said on Tuesday.
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A man walks past a mural on the upcoming elections in front of Pasar Anyar market in Tangerang, Banten. (Antara/Fauzan)
The House of Representatives will ensure there is no vacuum of power and pledges to give a sense of certainty in the organizing of the upcoming elections despite a controversial court ruling to delay the 2024 polls by more than two years, a deputy speaker said on Tuesday.
The surprise ruling by the Central Jakarta District Court earlier this month, which law experts say it had no authority to make, has renewed concerns about efforts to keep President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo in power beyond his second-term, which ends in 2024. The ruling ordered the General Elections Commission (KPU) to stop all ongoing election procedures and restart the process, dictating that it should take two years, four months and seven days. This would push the elections back to 2025 at the earliest.
Addressing the controversial ruling during a plenary session on Tuesday, House Deputy Speaker Lodewijk F. Paulus told fellow lawmakers that the Constitution makes clear that elections must be held every five years and “a political-legal stance” was needed to make sure that the Constitution would still be upheld.
"The House will give extra attention to the resolution of these legal issues so that there will not be a vacuum of executive or legislative powers," the Golkar Party politician said.
Lodewijk did not elaborate on what steps the House would take. But he said that lawmakers would try to provide a sense of having a “legal certainty” in the organizing of the 2024 by approving the government regulation in lieu of law (Perppu) on some changes regarding the polls, including the redrawing of electoral districts in Papua, in this sitting session. If approved, the Perppu will revise the prevailing General Elections Law, which currently only regulates the number of electoral districts and legislative seats in 34 provinces, excluding the four newest provinces in Papua.
Read also: Explainer: Prima, the party behind the controversial 'election restart' ruling
The civil lawsuit in the controversial lower court ruling was lodged last year by a little-known Prima Party, formed in 2021, and has never contested an election, which claimed it suffered unfair treatment and was denied the chance to contest the 2024 polls after it repeatedly failed the KPU’s verification process. The ruling has angered many within the government and across the political spectrum, including Golkar, which, in the recent past, has fueled the debate over a potential election delay and the extension of the presidential term limit.
