DPR Leader: The Time Committee For Issuance Of A Perppu Will Not Disrupt Election Stages

Daily Chairperson of the Gerindra Party DPP Sufmi Dasco Ahmad. (Nailin NS-VOI)

JAKARTA - The Indonesian House of Representatives together with the government have ratified the Draft Law (RUU) on the expansion of the province of Papua, into Central Papua, South Papua, and Papua Mountains, on June 30, 2022. Meanwhile, the Southwest Papua Bill, which will give birth to a new province in West Papua, is still waiting for the ratification of level II at the DPR Plenary Meeting. Thus, there will be four new provinces that need to be accommodated in the Election Law, especially the provisions regarding electoral districts (dapil). However, the issuance of Government Regulations in Lieu of the Election Law (Perppu) which will regulate the electoral district containing new provinces resulting from the expansion of Papua and Southwest Papua has the potential to be delayed. The reason is, the bill on Southwest Papua has not been ratified. In this regard, Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Sufmi Dasco Ahmad, said that his party would ratify the Southwest Papua Province Bill during this session. This commitment has even been conveyed at the Plenary Meeting closing the past session. "While waiting for the mechanism to run, hopefully we will immediately tidy up (the leadership meeting), Bamus (the deliberation agency), and plenary while waiting for synchronization with Commission II which has held a meeting with the government and the KPU (General Election Commission)," Dasco told reporters at the Senayan Parliament Complex, Jakarta, Friday, November 4. Regarding this bill will influence the Pilkada Perppu, Dasco said, the DPR has calculated. He ensured that the deadline for the Pilkada Perppu which was issued would not interfere with the 2024 election stage. "We then calculate the deadline for the Perppu to be issued so that the election stages are not disturbed," he explained. With these calculations, Dasco continued, the DPR and the government will resolve it with the mechanism in the DPR to immediately ratify the Southwest Papua Bill. Moreover, he said, the government made the Perppu. "There is a calculation. We don't have a target, because those who know that the government issued the Perppu are the government. But we will adjust it so that the Perppu issued does not exceed the time limit so that it does not interfere with the election stages," explained Dasco. "This is just waiting for the Rapim, Bamus, and Plenary mechanisms in the DPR," concluded the daily chairman of the Gerindra DPP.