Oops, La Nyalla Calls The Presidential Threshold, Keburi Kedaulatan Rakyat, This Is The Explanation

YOGYAKARTA - Chairman of the DPD RI AA La Nyalla Mahmud Mattalitti again spoke about the importance of the 5th Amendment to the 1945 Constitution. This time, La Nyalla said this when she was a keynote speaker in a Focus Group Discussion (FGD) at the University of Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY), Saturday, 5 july. The theme raised is the Presidential Threshold: Between Benefits and Disadvantages.

According to La Nyalla, the journey of the first to fourth amendments, which took place from 1999 to 2002, had a negative impact on people's sovereignty.

“I am rolling out the discourse on the 5th amendment, as a momentum to make corrections to the direction of the nation's journey. So we must encourage the MPR RI to convene with an amendment agenda, but with a spiritual atmosphere to make corrections and improvements to the amendments," said La Nyalla in an official statement received by VOI, on Saturday, June 5.

The FGD which was held offline and online via zoom was attended by the Chancellor of UMY, Dr. Ir Gunawan Budiyanto MP IPM. Present as speakers were Zainal Arifin Mochtar (Professor of Constitutional Law, Gadjah Mada University), Ridho Al-Hamdi (UMY lecturer in government science) and Iwan Satriawan SH MCL PhD (UMY law faculty lecturer).

According to him, there are many phrases and norms that must be corrected from the results of the last constitutional amendment. Because as a result of the amendment, a number of laws were born that were detrimental to the nation.

One of them is Law Number 7 of 2017 concerning Elections, which regulates the presidential threshold. La Nyalla considers that the regulation castrates the sovereignty of the people, by limiting the best candidates for leaders to have the same rights to appear in general elections.

La Nyalla explained the arguments related to this. "The Amendment Constitution in Article 6 Paragraph (2) states that the requirements to become President and Vice President are further regulated by law," he said.

Then Article 6A Paragraph (2) states that the pairs of candidates for President and Vice President are proposed by a political party or coalition of political parties participating in the general election prior to the implementation of the general election.

"Well, the order to make conditions through the Law in Article 6 Paragraph (2) and the phrase 'before the implementation of the general election' contained in Article 6A paragraph (2) led to the birth of the Law on Elections, which stipulates a threshold or Presidential Threshold and granting authority to political parties participating in the previous election or the previous period to submit proposals for presidential and vice-presidential candidates," he explained.

In fact, according to the perpetrators of the amendment, the sentence 'before the general election' was the result of the amendment was the norm for the political parties participating in the general election at that time. This means that political parties that have passed verification as election participants at that time.

It was also stated that the phrase 'before the general election' means that the presidential-vice presidential candidate pair has been proposed by a political party before the presidential election is held. Because the presidential election is held through a general election, the amendment is written with that phrase.

“And the phrase also contains the norm that the Pilleg and the Presidential Election are not conducted simultaneously. Even if it is carried out simultaneously, still, the nomination of the names of presidential and vice presidential candidates is carried out by political parties participating in the election that year, namely political parties that have been declared to have passed verification by the KPU as election participants, not political parties during the previous general election, or political parties five years earlier. said La Nyalla.

La Nyalla

On this basis, the Senator from East Java considered it to be very illogical if the presidential and vice presidential candidate pairs in the 2019 Presidential Election were proposed by political parties participating in the 2014 elections.

Likewise with the presidential election in 2024. It would be illogical if the pairs of candidates for president and vice president were proposed by political parties participating in the 2019 election.

“The question is what about political parties in 2019, which are no longer in parliament? Or if there is a political party that has disbanded. That means they can still carry presidential and vice presidential candidates," he said.

La Nyalla

“Or vice versa, what about new parties that are born and pass verification as election participants in 2024? Of course you can't carry presidential and vice presidential candidates. Even though it is said that the presidential and vice presidential candidates are proposed or promoted by political parties and or a combination of political parties participating in the election," added La Nyalla.

Meanwhile, the product of the Election Law stipulates that pairs of candidates in the presidential election are proposed by a political party or a combination of political parties that meet the requirements for obtaining seats of at least 20% of the total number of seats in the DPR or 25% of the nationally valid votes in the previous election for members of the DPR. This rule is contained in article 222.

"Whereas in Article 6A Paragraph (2) of the amended Constitution, the sentence is 'before the general election', not 'previous election for DPR members' because the two sentences clearly have different meanings," he said.

La Nyalla

La Nyalla also questioned the addition of the substance of the requirements for valid votes for political parties to be able to carry the presidential and vice presidential candidate pairs. This rule is argued to be based on the order of the Constitution as a result of the Amendment to Article 6 Paragraph (2) which states 'requirements to become President and Vice President will be further regulated by law'.

"This is a problem that causes people's sovereignty to be castrated, by limiting the best candidates for leaders to have the same rights to be able to appear in the arena," said La Nyalla.

Not only that, the former PSSI General Chair assessed that the presidential threshold had other negative impacts in the community. It is proven that during the 2019 Presidential Election, two camps emerged which caused political divisions and polarization that was so strong at the grassroots of candidate pairs.

“This polarization has not even subsided, even though the elite have reconciled. As a result, the buzz of hatred ran rampant. And we still feel it until this moment," he said.

La Nyalla

The 4th Amendment to the 1945 Constitution also prevented non-partisan presidential and vice presidential candidates from competing in the presidential election. After the abolition of group envoys and the change of regional envoys into DPD so that only representatives from political parties can nominate candidates.

"In fact, this DPD is the incarnation of regional representatives. But his authority to nominate president and vice president was also removed, and this was detrimental to the nation's best sons and daughters from outside political parties to run as candidates in the presidential election. So this is what we are fighting for, so that the DPD can become a means for non-partisan candidates to advance as presidential and vice-presidential candidates," said La Nyalla.