DPR Leadership to Meet Non-Parliamentary Parties to Discuss Election Bill Tomorrow

The leadership of the Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR RI) will meet with non-parliamentary parties to discuss the Election Bill on Friday (2/10).

Deputy Speaker of the DPR, Saan Mustopa, stated that the DPR wishes to hear the aspirations of non-parliamentary parties regarding the Election Bill. “The DPR leadership, as Mr Dasco mentioned, intends to meet with the leaders of non-parliamentary parties this Friday at Commission II. We will provide updates later, as the purpose is indeed to listen to the aspirations of these non-parliamentary parties,” Saan said at the parliamentary complex in Jakarta on Thursday (1/10).

The meeting was previously scheduled for last Tuesday (29/9) but was postponed to this Friday.

Saan noted that the meeting is likely to be attended by the leaders of the non-parliamentary parties. “Yes, it should be the party leaders. We will check again,” he added.

Non-parliamentary parties organised under the People’s Voice Sovereignty Movement (GKSR) previously announced that they have prepared a 200-page academic paper for the Election Bill to serve as input during the discussions in the DPR.

The Chairman of GKSR, Said Iqbal, stated that the academic paper covers 30 issues surrounding the Election Bill, including the parliamentary threshold, which remains a primary concern. “We held the launch of the academic paper alongside a comparison with the Election Bill currently being discussed by parliamentary parties in the DPR,” Said mentioned recently.

GKSR consists of eight non-parliamentary parties, namely the Hanura Party, Perindo Party, PPP, Labour Party, Partai Ummat, PBB, PKN, and Partai Berkarya. Through the draft academic paper, GKSR rejects the proposal to increase the parliamentary threshold to 5 per cent. Instead, they propose that the parliamentary threshold should be set at only 1 per cent.