The process of revising the 2008 Legislative Elections Law has come to a halt as factions in the House of Representatives continue to jockey to bolster their political fortunes in 2014, a senior lawmaker says. Gandjar Pranowo, chairman of the House working committee deliberating revisions to the law, said the process had to be finished by April to avoid disrupting preparations for the next elections. “All factions must leave their interests behind and make political compromises to settle the three major issues. Once the revision is endorsed into law, the General Elections Commission [KPU] and the Election Supervisory Body [Bawaslu] can prepare everything for the elections,” Gandjar said on Wednesday.
The major issues Gandjar referred to are changes to the electoral system, the election dispute settlement process and the parliamentary threshold. On revising the election dispute process, lawmakers from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) are proposing that ad-hoc courts be established at the district level to accelerate dispute resolution, which has currently been handled by the Constitutional Court in Jakarta.
Meanwhile, other factions, including the Golkar Party and the Democratic Party, are insisting on upholding the sole authority of the Constitutional Court to resolve disputes, as stipulated by the Constitution.
Full Article: House factions compete as deadline to revise election law nears | The Jakarta Post.