The Constitutional Court Affirms Not Eliminating The Threshold Of Parliament

The Constitutional Court held a trial for the pronunciation of the decision on the review of Law Number 7 of 2017 concerning Elections, Thursday (29/02) (doc MK)

JAKARTA - The Constitutional Court (MK) emphasized that it does not eliminate the parliamentary threshold or parliamentary threshold provisions regulated in Law Number 7 of 2017 concerning Elections (UU Elections). According to the Constitutional Court, parliamentary thresholds remain necessary, but must be compiled with a clear and comprehensive study method. This was conveyed by the judge MK Enny Nurbaningsih in order to clarify the contents of case decisions of 116/PUU-XXI/2023 that had been read out by the Constitutional Court in plenary meetings in the Court courtroom, Thursday (29/2/2024). "The decision of Number 116 does not eliminate the threshold as can be read out from its ruling," said Enny, Friday, March 1. Enny said, the Constitutional Court handed over to lawmakers to regulate the parliamentary threshold and determine the percentage number. Most importantly, said Enny, the parliamentary threshold figure is rational by referring to a clear and comprehensive review method. "That the threshold and the amount of the percentage is submitted to the legislators in order to determine a rational and comprehensive threshold so that it can minimize the increasingly high disproportionity that causes many of the disproportional votes to be wasted so that the proportional systems are used, but the election results are disproportionate," explained Enny. Related to that, continued Enny, in the decision of case number 116, the Constitutional Court asked lawmakers to change the parliamentary threshold of 4 percent which is regulated in Article 414 paragraph (1) of Law Number 7 of 2017 concerning Elections, with rational numbers. This process of revising the parliamentary threshold is carried out before the implementation of the 2029 Election. Therefore, for the 2029 election and beyond it must already be used a threshold with the amount of percentage that can solve the issue (an increasingly high disproportionity which causes many legitimate votes to be wasted)," concluded Enny.

Third, changes to the parliamentary threshold must be placed in order to realize the simplification of political parties. Fourth, the changes have been completed before the start of the stages of holding the 2029 General Election. Finally, the changes involve all groups who pay attention to holding general elections by applying meaningful public participation principles, including involving political parties participating in the election who do not have representatives in the DPR.