Civil Society Coalition Urges DPR to Promptly Discuss Election Law Bill

Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Civil Society Coalition for the Codification of Elections has urged the government and the House of Representatives (DPR RI) to promptly discuss the Draft Law (RUU) on Amendments to Law No. 7 of 2017 on General Elections (Pemilu). Kahfi Adlan Hafiz, a researcher from the Centre for Elections and Democracy Studies (Perludem) who is part of the coalition, stated that this demand is based on the results of a comprehensive evaluation of previous elections, which revealed various structural problems in the design and regulation of elections. “The need for revisions to the Election Law is increasingly urgent, particularly in relation to the upcoming stages of selecting election organisers,” Kahfi said during the coalition’s online press conference held in Jakarta on Monday. He noted that the bill has actually been included in the National Legislation Programme (Prolegnas) priorities since 2025. However, it has not been discussed to date. On the other hand, he assessed that the absence of initiative from political parties (parpol) to accelerate the discussion of the bill indicates a conflict between normative democratic interests and pragmatic power interests. Political parties, he said, tend to maintain the existing rules if they are considered advantageous to their positions in electoral competition. “This situation erodes the legitimacy of the system in political parties, which should be at the forefront in safeguarding the quality of democracy, but are instead trapped in narrow political calculations,” he stated. Therefore, he also urged all political parties in parliament to demonstrate real commitment to democratic reform by no longer delaying the discussion of the amendments to the Election Law, and to ensure that regulatory changes are not based on short-term electoral interests. The DPR RI and the President, he said, need to guarantee that the process of revising the Election Law is carried out through constitutional legislative mechanisms that are transparent and accountable, as well as ensuring meaningful public participation in every stage of the discussion.