Commission II Holds Meeting with Jimly Asshiddiqie, Mahfud, and Refly Harun; Here's What Was Discussed

Jakarta—Commission II of the House of Representatives held a meeting with several constitutional law experts to gather input on the design and critical issues in organising elections.

The meeting was directly chaired by Commission II Chairman Muhammad Rifqinizamy Karsayuda and was attended by three constitutional law experts: Jimly Asshiddiqie, Mahfud MD, and Refly Harun.

Rifqi stated that the meeting was held to bring about a significantly improved future election to strengthen constitutional democracy going forward.

“We are developing a legislative strategy at present; we want to hear as many perspectives as possible,” said Rifqi, opening the meeting at Parliament Complex in Jakarta on Tuesday (10 March 2026).

After receiving various inputs, Rifqi said, Commission II will establish a working committee (Panja) for the Electoral Law Bill.

He hoped that the Electoral Law Bill working committee would not take too long, as it would already have focused discussions based on the Draft Initial Mandate that had received input from the experts.

“Once the working committee is formed, we hope the Draft Initial Mandate from experts and NGOs will be well-structured, including the 22 Constitutional Court decisions that granted material review requests against Law No. 7 of 2017 as an important part of it,” he said.

As the first speaker, Jimly appreciated Commission II’s step in accommodating many perspectives on electoral matters over the past two months.

“Later, even after the working committee is formed, we remain open to this approach. So that what is called meaningful participation truly runs, especially regarding electoral matters,” said Jimly.

According to Jimly, discussions that debate ideas are good for democracy.

“There is no need to immediately think about how many support option A and how many do not. We should not do that; instead, we must engage with big ideas. So, consolidating this political policy is a serious matter,” he stated firmly.