Thanks To The Constitutional Court's Decision, NasDem Believes There Is No Empty Box In The 2024 Pilkada

Secretary General Of NasDem Hermawi Taslim/PHOTO: Diah Ayu-VOI

Secretary General of the NasDem Party, Hermawi Taslim, assessed that the contestation of regional head candidates in the 2024 Pilkada will not be colored by empty boxes.

Although the registration period was closed on August 29 at 23.59 p.m., the General Elections Commission (KPU) gave an extension of time for regions that were only registered by one candidate pair.

"Now everyone, all interested parties are working hard to take advantage of the 3x24 hour so that our regional elections are more democratic, there are no empty boxes," said Hermawi at NasDem Tower, Friday, August 30.

Hermawi emphasized that efforts to prevent competition with empty boxes were driven by the decision of the Constitutional Court (MK) which made it easier for political parties (parpol) to carry their candidate pairs through a decrease in the nomination threshold.

Through this decision, the Constitutional Court stated that political parties that do not get seats in the DPRD can nominate a candidate for regional head.

The calculation of the requirements to propose a candidate pair is only based on the results of the legal votes acquired by political parties or coalitions of political parties in the election in the area concerned, which ranges from 6.5 to 10 percent.

"I am sure that on the third day of extension time there will be no empty boxes," said Hermawi.

Hermawi also gave an example of the phenomenon in the West Java (West Java) gubernatorial election. Initially, West Java had the opportunity to only fill one candidate, namely Dedi Mulyadi-Erwan Setiawan.

Dedi-Erwan is promoted by a fat coalition consisting of the Gerindra, Golkar, Democrat, PAN, and PSI parties. It is also supported by nine non-parliamentary parties, namely Hanura, Gelora, Garuda, PKN, Labor, Prima, Perindo, PBB, and the Ummat Party.

Then, after the Constitutional Court's decision, other political parties were accommodated to carry another pair of candidates. Among them were NasDem, PKS, and PPP who carried Ahmad Syaikhu-Ilham Habibie, Acep Adang Ruhiyat-Gitalis Dwi Natarina who were promoted by PKB, and Jeje Wiradinata-Ral Surapradja were promoted by PDIP.

"You see West Java wanted to make empty boxes. Suddenly there were NasDem and PKS, then there was PKB. Well, that's all. For large areas of Central Java, East Java, Banten, DKI, West Java, it's like this, believe me. Outside Java, it's much more enthusiastic," he added.