Suddenly Golkar Want RUU To Be Postponed, Follow The Government

JAKARTA - The Golkar Party faction in the Regional House of Representatives Indonesia (DPR RI) stated that they currently reject the Election Bill (RUU) for discussion. This means that Golkar rejects the normalization of the next regional elections to be held in 2022 and 2023.

This contradicts the previous position of Golkar in discussing the DPR's proposed Election Bill. The bill contains the DPR's proposal that the 2017 Pilkada be held in 2022 and the 2018 Pilkada will be continued in 2023.

"In the end, we came to the conclusion that we (Golkar) will postpone the discussion of the revision of the Law", said Golkar Party Deputy Chairman Ahmad Doli Kurnia in a virtual discussion, Monday, February 8.

Doli explained that the change in Golkar's attitude was reluctant to discuss the Election Bill on the backdrop of the results of discussions between President Jokowi and the leadership of the government coalition party.

"There were very intensive discussions between the government and the leadership of our political parties", said Doli.

Thus, Golkar as one of the parties that supported President Jokowi during the 2019 Presidential Election followed the government's position of wanting to hold regional elections simultaneously in 2024. This followed the rules in Law Number 1 of 2015 concerning Pilkada.

"We can say that in the discussion of the Law there must be a common view between the government and the DPR, in which the DPR consists of representatives of political parties. Of course, as a political party that is part of the government, we must have the same views with the government", explained Doli.

Prior to Golkar, the Nasdem Party and PKB also changed their stance that the deliberation of the DPR General Election Bill proposed for November 26 be postponed.

Meanwhile, a number of other parties such as PAN and PPP rejected the overall discussion of the Election Bill, which includes the normalization of the 2022 and 2023 Pilkada.

Finally, only two-party factions, PKS and the Democrat Party, still want to discuss the Election Bill which will replace the existing electoral laws, including the normalization of regional elections.