Naik Proposes, Democrats Still Count the Ideal Number of Parliamentary Thresholds

JAKARTA - The Democratic Party appreciates the proposal of political parties to raise the parliamentary threshold above 4 percent.

However, the Democrats will still calculate how many ideal numbers for the limit of political parties to enter Senayan.

It is known that the NasDem Party proposed PT to increase from 4 percent to 7 percent.

Meanwhile, the Golkar Party suggested only increasing to 5 percent.

Secretary General of the Democratic Party, Herman Khaeron, said the Constitutional Court had ordered the parliamentary threshold to be lowered, given the large number of wasted votes for legislative candidates. Therefore, he said, the Democratic Party would calculate the ideal number for the PT rule.

"The parliamentary threshold today is 4 percent applies nationally, applies to the DPR RI. Because it does not apply to the Provincial DPRD and Regency/City, 4 percent. And there is a decision of the Constitutional Court which states that due to too many, because the parliamentary threshold is too high, many votes are not represented because they are cut off by the parliamentary threshold. Therefore, the Constitutional Court asked for the results of its decision to be lowered," said Herman Khaeron at the DPR building, Senayan, Jakarta, Thursday, February 26.

"Now, if someone asks to go up, of course we respect it. It is the right of the parties to put their ideal numbers," he continued.

However, for Democrats, said Herman, they will certainly still consider various aspects. Because even if in the revision of the Election Law they have the same rights, according to him, this article cannot stand alone because there is a decision from the Constitutional Court.

"(Then) we will later calculate how many ideal numbers are right for this to be the limit of the parliament," he said.

Even so, Herman did not deny that there would be an increase in the threshold for the parliament. According to him, all changes related to election rules could happen.

"Everything is possible as long as there is reasoning and a strong basis," he explained.

"But of course, this article does not stand alone because there is a decision of the Constitutional Court regarding the excessive 4 percent as a threshold for parliament. So that's what we are studying," continued the member of Commission VI of the DPR.

Previously, the General Chair of the NasDem Party, Surya Paloh, proposed raising the parliamentary threshold from 4 percent to 7 percent. NasDem assessed that an increase in the parliamentary threshold was necessary to simplify the multi-party system into a selected party and claimed that it would optimize the performance of democracy for all people.

However, a number of political parties consider the proposal to raise the parliamentary threshold or parliamentary threshold to 7 percent too high and has the potential to narrow political representation in parliament. Such as Golkar which only sets a figure of 5 percent for a presidential threshold.

This issue will also be one of the materials discussed in the Draft Election Law in Commission II of the DPR.