House Of Representatives Commission II: Proposed Election Schedule For May 2024 Could Disrupt Regional Elections In November

ILLUSTRATION/PIXABAY

JAKARTA - The government's proposal through the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Mahfud MD regarding the simultaneous elections on May 15, 2024, is being questioned. The proposal is said to threaten the cancellation of the simultaneous regional elections which should have been scheduled for November 2024.

The Deputy Chairman of Commission II of the House of Representatives (DPR), Luqman Hakim, reminded the government to learn from the experience of the 2019 General Election, which has claimed hundreds of lives because the election stages are too crowded.

"The 2019 general election voting will be held on April 17, 2019, the General Election Commissions (KPU) has determined the recapitulation of the election results on May 21, 2019. This means that the determination of the recapitulation of the May 15 election will be held around June 20, 2024," said Luqman, Tuesday, September 28.

Luqman explained that the dispute resolution of the 2019 election results by the Constitutional Court (MK) was only 100 percent completed in August 2019. This means that, he said, it would take more than 3 months to determine the recapitulation of election results.

"Remember, the laws that are used as the basis for the 2019 and 2024 elections are the same, there is no change at all. This means that the flow and timing of the 2019 elections will be repeated in the 2024 elections," he said.

Luqman considered that if the election was held on May 15, 2024, the resolution of election disputes by the Constitutional Court would be final in mid-August 2024. According to him, this would threaten the simultaneous local elections in November.

It is feared that this condition will create chaos at the simultaneous Pilkada stages which have been mandated in Law 7/2017.

"If this happens, we must be prepared to face the chaos of the 2024 Pilkada stage and it is very likely that the November 2024 simultaneous elections will fail," concluded Luqman.