PDIP: Close Discourse On Postponing Elections

Andreas Hugo Pereira/Photo: Antara

JAKARTA - The senior politician of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) Andreas Hugo Pareira invites all parties to close the discourse on postponing the 2024 General Election. This is because the proposed postponement of the 2024 General Election does not have a solid basis.

Andreas reminded President Joko Widodo of the statement that he repeatedly emphasized obedience to the constitution. Therefore, he asked that the discourse be closed and not leaned on the president.

"The president himself has clearly said that he obeys the constitution and does not agree with the addition of positions or the postponement of the election, so don't rely on the president for delays," said Andreas, Wednesday, March 2.

"Never mind, we will close this discourse and focus on the pandemic and economic recovery agenda," he continued.

Andreas stressed that the discourse on postponing the election had no legal or political basis. Because juridically the 1945 Constitution regulates the president to be re-elected for a term of 5 years.

"So that if we postpone the 2024 election, first, there will be a vacancy in all positions elected by the people, be it president, governor, regent, mayor throughout Indonesia as well as the central, provincial and district, city, and DPD legislatures," he said.

Secondly, continued Andreas, they must amend the 1945 Constitution to add positions elected by the people. Another way is for President Jokowi to issue a decree for an additional term of office.

"But this will result in the president against the constitution, because the president is sworn to obey the constitution," he said.

Third, politically, the addition of the presidential position is an irony after the DPR through Commission II together with the government has decided on the agenda for the stages of the 2024 General Election.

"Which in Commission II of the DPR contains party representatives, including from parties whose chairman proposes to postpone the election," he said.

According to Andreas, the agreement on the 2024 election date with the proposed postponement of the election is contradictory. This, he said, would be a question for the public whether when Commission II of the DPR RI decided the stages of the election were not known to the head of the political party.

Fourth, economic reasons cannot be justified. "Because in fact from previous years, now and in the future we are fighting for economic recovery. And one of the keys to economic recovery is the certainty of political regulation," he explained.

Therefore, Andreas believes that the discourse on postponing the election is actually dangerous for the certainty of political regulations which will have an impact on efforts to recover the economy. Therefore, he asked the discourse of postponing the election to be postponed and not to rely on Jokowi.

"So it is better for us to close the discourse on postponing the election and concentrate more on economic recovery, agendas related to the direct interests of the community such as cooking oil, high soybean prices and especially overcoming this pandemic completely," concluded Andreas.