What Is "Presidential Threshold Good At Listen To The Understanding And History Of Determination Of The 20 Percent Presidential Candidates

Illustration (Puxabay).

YOGYAKARTA The provisions for the presidential nomination threshold have been repeatedly sued at the Constitutional Court (MK) level. However, the Constitutional Court has never changed its mind to reject the lawsuit. So what is the presidential threshold?

Based on VOI records, several parties who have filed presidential threshold lawsuits with the Constitutional Court include the General Chair of the Crescent Star Party (PBB) Yusril Ihza Mahendra, the Chairman of the DPD RI La Nyalla Mahmud Mattaliti, and the top officials of the Gelora Party, Fahri Hamzah and Anies Matta.

The petitioners asked the Constitutional Court to abolish the 20 percent threshold for presidential candidacy to 0 percent. The reason is that every political party can apply for a presidential candidate in the 2024 election.

In addition, the 20 percent presidential threshold has also been sued by the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS). However, the party bearing the symbol of the sickle moon asked the Constitutional Court to reduce the presidential threshold to 7-9 percent.

Quoted from Kompas, According to Goris Seran's Gotfridus in his book the Popular Election Dictionary: Kosa Kata Umum Indonesia and other Countries, the presidential threshold is the threshold for obtaining votes that must be obtained by political parties in an election to run for president.

History of Presidential Threshold 20 percent

The threshold for presidential and vice presidential candidacy always changes. The presidential threshold was first formulated in Law No. 23/2003 concerning General Elections of the President and Vice President.

Article 5 Paragraph (4) states that pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates can only be submitted by political parties or coalitions of political parties that get at least 15 percent of the number of seats in parliament or 20 percent of the nationally valid votes in the DPR's election.

The presidential threshold was first enforced in the 2024 General Election or at the first time Indonesia held a presidential election in person.

The threshold for presidential candidacy has changed again in the 2009 presidential election, following the amendment to the Election Law. At that time, pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates could be submitted by political parties or political parties who have at least 25 percent seats in parliament or 20 percent of national legitimate votes in the Legislative Election.

This presidential threshold is contained in Law no. 42/2008. In the 2009 presidential election, there are three pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates, namely Megawati Soekarnoputri-Prabowo Subianto, Soesilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY)-Budiono, and Jusuf Kalla-Wirto. The 2009 presidential election was won by SBY-Budiono with 60.8 percent of the vote.

In the 2014 presidential election, the provisions on the threshold for presidential candidacy did not change, aka still refer to Law number 42 of 2008. In the presidential election, there were only two pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates, namely Joko Widodo-Jusuf Kalla and Prabowo Subianto-Hatta Rajasa. The presidential and vice presidential candidates of Jokowi-JK managed to get out as the winner of the presidential election with 53.15 percent of the vote.

The presidential threshold has changed again in the 2019 presidential election. This provision is regulated in Law no. 7/2017 concerning General Elections.

Article 22 of the Law states that the pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates are proposed by political parties or coalition political parties participating in the general election who meet the requirements for obtaining seats of at least 20 percent of the total seats in parliament or obtaining 25 percent of the nationally valid votes in the previous election for members of the DPR.

This change in regulation was due to the presidential election and legislative elections (Pileg) being held simultaneously in April 2019. Meanwhile, in the 2004, 2009, and 2014 elections, the Legislative Election was held before the presidential election.

The 2019 presidential election was again attended by 2 pairs of candidates, namely Jokowi-Ma'ruf Amin and Prabowo-Sandiaga Uno. The presidential election was won by Jokowi-Ma'ruf with 55.50 percent of the vote.

Thus is the explanation of what the presidential threshold is and the history of determining the provisions for the threshold for presidential candidacy. Presidential threshold is a requirement for someone to be able to run for president or vice president in general elections.