Party performance and legitimacy<\/p>\n
No word better describes the feelings we had watching the
\nIndonesian Democratic Party's (PDI) performance in the general
\nelection, than shock.<\/p>\n
When, about a year before the election, Soerjadi proudly
\naccepted the PDI's top job at a congress in Medan, many observers
\npredicted the party would perform badly. But nobody could have
\nguessed it would be this bad.<\/p>\n
The vote counting is as yet (Saturday noon) incomplete.
\nNevertheless, if the present trend continues, there is a good
\nchance that the PDI will get less than five million votes.<\/p>\n
This would mean that the party will have less than ten seats
\nin the new House of Representatives. It would also mean no PDI
\nrepresentatives on some of the national Commissions.<\/p>\n
This it turn would raise unanticipated constitutional
\nproblems, since any Commission decision must have the support of
\nthree factions.<\/p>\n
In some democratic countries with multi-party systems,
\npolitical parties that fail to get a significant number of votes
\nare subject to sanctions. They are not allowed to take part in
\nthe following general election. The reasoning, of course, is that
\nparties with insignificant voter support lack legitimacy. The
\npoint is, how in the world can a political party claim to be a
\nmass organization without mass support.<\/p>\n
The problem confronting the PDI at present could become a
\nconstitutional problem for us in the future. It may be that a law
\nis needed to set a minimum number of votes needed by a political
\nparty in order to maintain its legitimacy as a social-political
\norganization.<\/p>\n
-- Media Indonesia, Jakarta<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/party-performance-and-legitimacy-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }