Despite The Establishment Of 3 New Papua Provinces, Mahfud MD: No Revision Of The Election Law

Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Mahfud MD. (Setpres/Rusman)

JAKARTA - Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs (Menkopolhukam), Mahfud MD, confirmed that he would not revise Law Number 7 of 2017 concerning General Elections despite the establishment of three New Autonomous Regions (DOB).

"There will be no revision of the Election Law," Mahfud said at the vice presidential palace in Jakarta, Tuesday.

Mahfud conveyed this after attending a meeting on Papua led by Vice President, Ma'ruf Amin and also attended by Minister of Home Affairs (Menadgri) Tito Karnavian and Minister of Finance, Sri Mulyani Indrawati.

"No, there will be no agenda for revising the Election Law," said Mahfud.

Previously, Chairman of the General Elections Commission (KPU) Hasyim Asy'ari said that the formation of a new autonomous region in Papua had consequences for the 2024 election, so there needs to be a revision of the Election Law no later than the end of 2022 because, in February 2023, the KPU has started to determine electoral areas.

Hasyim said, when there is division, there will be additional electoral districts including changes to electoral districts in the parent province. Therefore, the existence of new autonomous regions changed the allocation of House of Representatives (DPR) seats.

Law Number 7 of 2017 concerning Elections regulates the number of DPR members as many as 575 people. Meanwhile, each province has a minimum of three seats in the DPR.

This means that the formation of three Papua New Guineans has the consequence of adding seats to the House of Representatives (DPR), Regional Representative Council (DPD), and Provincial Regional House of Representatives (DPRD).

On June 30, 2022, the DPR and the government agreed on three laws to establish a new province in Papua.

According to the government, the division of the province in Papua is a mandate from Law Number 2 of 2021 concerning Special Autonomy for Papua, especially Article 76 which consists of five paragraphs, that the expansion must take into account the political, administrative, legal, unitary, socio-cultural aspects, the readiness of human resources, basic infrastructure, and economic capacity.

The three provinces, namely South Papua, will be named Anim Ha with the capital city Merauke and the scope of the territory is Merauke Regency, Mappi Regency, Asmat Regency, and Boven Digoel Later Regency.

Central Papua Province will be named Meepago with the capital city of Timika and the scope of the territory of Mimika Regency, Paniai Regency, Dogiyai Regency, Deyiai Regency, Intan Jaya Regency, and Puncak Regency.

Meanwhile, the province of Central Mountains Papua will be named Lapago with the capital city of Wamena and the scope of the area of Jayawijaya Regency, Puncak Jaya Regency, Lanny Jaya Regency, Central Mamberamo Regency, Nduga Regency, Tolikara Regency, Yahukimo Regency, and Yalimo Regency.