NasDem Disagrees Presidential Treshold Removed

JAKARTA - The General Chairperson (Ketum) of the NasDem Party, Surya Paloh, assessed that the abolition of the presidential threshold or the minimum threshold for presidential candidacy as stated in Article 222 of Law Number 7 of 2017 concerning General Elections was inappropriate.

The abolition refers to the Constitutional Court Decision No. 62/PUU-XXII/2024 which was read out by the judge at the Court Court Court Court Courtroom, Jakarta, Thursday, February 13.

"It's not appropriate that the presidential threshold will be zeroed. From the start, yes, it was regulated. Indeed, the hope is that there will also be a decision," Surya said when met by the media crew at NasDem Tower, Jakarta, Friday. February 14, confiscated by Antara.

The presidential threshold is a minimum threshold that must be met by political parties or coalitions of parties to nominate presidential and vice presidential candidates. In the old rules, parties or coalitions must have 20 percent of seats in the DPR or 25 percent of national valid votes in the legislative elections.

According to him, if the percentage of the presidential threshold, which is around 20 percent, is not appropriate, it should be discussed further, not turn it into 0 percent. Because, the main goal is that Indonesia's democracy is running effectively.

"Not only trapped in the euphoria of democracy for democracy, but democracy for development that leads to the ideals of our independence," he said.

On the other hand, Surya stated that everyone's right to nominate candidates in the upcoming presidential election without a presidential threshold.

Even so, he also admitted that he never imagined if there were more than 50 presidential candidates who registered.

He did not rule out the possibility of such an event. This is because the absence of a presidential threshold is able to make 70 to 80 parties pass the election.

Previously, the Constitutional Court decided to abolish the minimum threshold provisions for the percentage of proposing pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates in Article 222 of Law Number 7 of 2017 concerning Elections because it contradicts the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia.

"Granted the petitioners' petition in its entirety," said Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court Suhartoyo when reading the verdict Number 62/PUU-XXII/2024 at the Plenary Court Session Room, Jakarta, Thursday.

The Constitutional Court views that the presidential threshold regulated in Article 222 of Law Number 7 of 2017 closes and eliminates the constitutional rights of political parties participating in elections that do not have a percentage of valid votes nationally or the percentage of seats in the DPR in the previous election to propose pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates.

Furthermore, the Constitutional Court learns that the direction of Indonesia's political movement tends to always strive for every presidential and vice presidential election to only be followed by two pairs of candidates.

According to the Constitutional Court, this condition makes people easily trapped in polarization that threatens the integrity of Indonesia if it is not anticipated.

Therefore, the Constitutional Court states that the presidential threshold stipulated in Article 222 of Law Number 7 of 2017 is not only against the political rights and sovereignty of the people, but also violates morality, rationality, and intolerable injustice.