The Election Law Is Judged As An Opportunity Blocker For Anies And Gatot Nurmantyo Nyapres

DKI Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan (Photo: Diah Ayu Wardani / VOI)

JAKARTA - The DPR RI has proposed additional requirements for presidential candidates to become cadres of political parties before participating in the upcoming Presidential Election in 2024. This of course can close the opportunity for independent figures to become presidential candidates.

Seeing this, a political observer from Al-Azhar University, Ujang Komarudin, considered this suggestion as a strategy for major political parties to block the opportunity for independent figures to participate in the presidential election.

This is because currently there are a number of names of figures from non-party lines who have high electability, based on the survey results. Call it Anies Baswedan and Gatot Nurmantyo.

"It could be part of a political party's strategy to lock out non-political candidates so that non-cadres cannot become presidential candidates, such as Anies and Gatot", said Ujang when contacted, Wednesday, January 27.

Gatot Nurmantyo / Special

In fact, according to Ujang, the provision that allows independent figures to register can be an alternative for parties or coalitions of parties that do not have potential cadres to run for the presidential election.

"The current provisions are usually to fill the void because there are no party cadres who can be used as presidential and vice-presidential candidates. So, closing opportunities for non-party figures does not make the democratic system healthy because it limits the rights of others," he said.

As is well known, this proposal is included in the Draft Law on General Elections (RUU Pemilu) which revises the existing Election Law and Pilkada Law.

In Article 311 of the Election Bill, it is stated that the registration of prospective presidential and vice-presidential candidates must complete the administrative requirements documents.

One of them is a certificate of becoming a political party cadre one year before the election. This is stated in a certificate that has become a member, cadre, or administrator of a political party signed by the general chairman or other designations and secretary general or other names of political parties.