Expert Warns That If Parliament Delays Revising Election Law, the Resulting Rules Will Be Half-Baked

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - Executive Director of the Network for Democracy and Electoral Integrity (NETGRIT) Hadar Nafis Gumay has warned that failure to promptly discuss revisions to the Election Law (UU Pemilu) could result in makeshift regulations that do not address improvements to the quality of elections.

He also highlighted the DPR’s stance of not accelerating the discussions.

In fact, the available time is increasingly limited, potentially restricting substantive revisions.

“If our DPR takes the position of not rushing, we’ll do it later, at the end of the year, next year, fine. So, we’ll end up with a half-baked law, and the quality of our elections can be imagined—it won’t improve as it should be our right,” said Hadar during an online Public Forum event on Monday (4/5/2026).

“If this is not discussed soon, we won’t have a law or elections of better quality,” he stated.

Therefore, Hadar urged the completion of the Election Law revisions in the near future, given that election stages require a long time.

According to NETGRIT’s calculations, election stages could take up to 22 months using the current rules.

“So we must finalise that law this year as well,” he said.

Hadar also reminded that the recruitment process for election organisers such as the KPU, Bawaslu, and DKPP must begin no later than six months before the end of their terms.

“What does that mean? That we only have about 5 months, less than 6 months left,” said Hadar.

Hadar invited the public to join in pushing the DPR and the government to immediately discuss the revision of the Election Law to produce quality regulations.

“If we are serious about having elections that are not complicated, not messy, not expensive or efficient, and clean elections with minimal or no fraud, then start with a solid election law,” he concluded.