PDIP Secretary General: Presidential Threshold Of 20 Percent To Ensure The Effectiveness Of The People's Choice Of Government

PDIP Secretary General Hasto Kristiyanto (Photo: DOK PDIP/VOI)

JAKARTA - Secretary General of the PDI-P Hasto Kristiyanto assessed that the presidential threshold requirement or the threshold for presidential candidacy was 20 percent so that the government elected by the people could run effectively.

This was conveyed in response to the recent polemic regarding the presidential threshold. This threshold is often even sued to the Constitutional Court (MK).

"Because the minimum (presidential threshold, red) is 20 percent to ensure the effectiveness of the work of the government elected by the people," said Hasto, quoted from his written statement, Wednesday, December 22.

For this reason, his party supports maintaining the threshold in the Election Law. Moreover, learning from the experiences of the administrations of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) and President Joko Widodo (Jokowi), Hasto said that parliamentary support was needed.

"Pak Jokowi in the first period of his leadership, was elected with a strong vote of the people. But with the support of the parliament which was only 20 percent at that time, it took a year and a half for consolidation," he said.

"Therefore, the 20 percent requirement is for the effectiveness of government work, it is a system that we have built. Politics is based on political theory. Also learns about the practices of state government," added Hasto.

Furthermore, he also spoke about the presidential threshold, which is considered to bring up such candidates. Hasto said, each political party must carry out its regeneration properly in order to gain the people's trust by going down.

Like what PDIP did through Baguna, they always train themselves and then go down. "So the liberal contestation is not linear with the quality of leadership. Because the quality of leadership is determined by the systematic regeneration process," he said.

Before closing his statement, Hasto said that the election was a place to convey the whole concept of the running of the state government to the people and not be determined by the number of candidates. According to him, instead of lowering the threshold, political parties should move to the people in order to gain trust.

“The way to get more than 20 percent support, can only be done by doing people's work, going down to the midst of the people. Not by changing the law," said Hasto.