Eight Political Parties Will Reject Closed Proportional System Elections, Airlangga Hartarto, AHY, Ahmad Syaikhu, To Cak Imin

The meeting of the leaders of eight political parties at a hotel in Jakarta. (Photo: VOI/Diah Ayu Wardani)

JAKARTA - The top leaders of eight political parties that have seats in Senayan held a meeting to agree on their rejection of the 2024 General Election discourse with a closed proportional system.

In the room of a hotel in South Jakarta, eight political party flags were displayed, including the Golkar Party, Gerindra, NasDem, PKB, Democrats, PKS, PAN, and PPP. Only the PDIP flag was not installed at the meeting.

Ketum Golkar Airlangga Hartarto, Ketum PAN Zulkifli Hasan, Ketum Demokrat Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono, President of PKS Ahmad Syaikhu, Deputy General NasDem Ahmad Ali, Secretary General NasDem Jhonny G Plate, Deputy PPP Amir Uskara, Chairman of PKB Muhaimin Iskandar, and other party elites. Only Gerindra party officials were not present at the meeting.

Met at the location, Deputy Head of NasDem Ahmad Ali said, the eight high-ranking political party officials will discuss their understanding to address the electoral system.

The plan is that they will voice the rejection of a closed proportional system, in which voters are only given the option of voting for the party and not a legislative candidate in the 2024 Legislative Election.

"Ketum partai hari ini bertemu. Salah satu yang ingin dibicarakan, satu soal masalahnya pernyataan Ketua KPU tentang proportional terbuka. Itu menjadi point yang akan kita diskusi supaya ada pemahaman yang sama.8 partai ini akan menyatakan sikap menolak sistem proportional tertutup, harusnya seperti itu," kata Ali, Minggu, 8 Januari.

The polemic of the electoral system stems from a judicial review lawsuit against Article 168 Paragraph 2 of Law (UU) Number 7 of 2017 concerning elections filed by a number of citizens to the Constitutional Court (MK).

The petitioners asked the Constitutional Court to declare the article unconstitutional. That way the electoral system in Indonesia can be changed from open proportional to closed proportional. According to Ali, the Constitutional Court should not grant the judicial review.

"Indeed, the domain of political parties that make laws is not the domain of the Constitutional Court should be," he said.

Chairman of the General Election Commission (KPU) Hasyim Asy'ari previously talked about the possibility that the General Election system or the 2024 General Election would return to using a closed proportional system. He said the system was being discussed through the Constitutional Court (MK) trial.

However, Hasyim explained, it was only an assumption based on the existence of a lawsuit at the Constitutional Court regarding the current electoral law. So it is not a proposal from the KPU but from the current electoral factual conditions.

"So maybe prospective election participants can get ready and follow developments if the Court grants the lawsuit," he said during the KPU Year End Note event at the KPU office, Menteng, Central Jakarta, Thursday, December 29, 2022.

Responding to this, some time ago, the eight party factions in the DPR had stated their written stance that they would continue to support the implementation of an open proportional system in the 2024 General Election. They even asked the Constitutional Court to be consistent with its decision on an open proportional system.