Benny K Harman Speaks Out on Scenario to Restrict Presidential Candidate Nominations

Democratic Party Deputy Chairman Benny K Harman has spoken out regarding the issue of a scenario to restrict the nomination of presidential and vice-presidential candidates, which he wrote about in a newspaper opinion piece some time ago. During a discussion forum at the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences at UIN Jakarta on Tuesday (8/7), Benny described his writing as a wake-up call for the civil society coalition. According to him, the public must start building awareness to oversee the drafting of the bill, which is suspected to be discussed hastily to avoid a judicial review lawsuit. “So there is no excuse, no time, no opportunity for the people to file a judicial review, and then the Constitutional Court has no time to examine and annul it,” Benny said. Benny also firmly rejected the discourse on the scenario to restrict presidential and vice-presidential nominations. He argued that the reason for the restriction is illogical simply because it could potentially cause commotion. “The second reason is that if there are many political parties and many presidential candidates, it causes commotion. Can the reason of commotion and the reason of efficiency be used to ignore the constitution? What does efficiency and commotion have to do with the constitutional mandate?” he said. According to him, the public can no longer rely entirely on the House of Representatives (DPR) to discuss the bill. He warned that leaving it entirely to the DPR could potentially lead to the smuggling of articles. “I tell my civil society friends, do not sleep too soundly for too long. There is a danger lurking, namely the uprooting of the people’s sovereignty in this election law,” he said. In his opinion column in Kompas daily on 21 June, Benny wrote that there is currently a scenario where presidential and vice-presidential candidates must be nominated by at least three parliamentary parties. This provision will later be regulated in the Election Bill currently being drafted by Commission II of the DPR. “There are strong indications that the upcoming election regulations are deliberately designed to limit the people’s right to choose the highest leader in this country,” Benny wrote. “One of the most dangerous discourses being floated is the restriction of presidential and vice-presidential candidates, where only candidate pairs supported by at least three parliamentary political parties will be allowed to compete,” he added.