Presidential candidacy rule opposed
Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Political experts and politicians have expressed disagreement with the presidential elections bill, which stipulates that only political parties winning at least 20 percent of the seats in the House of Representatives are allowed to nominate their own presidential and vice presidential candidates.
Several of the experts suggested that all political parties contesting the legislative election should have the right to also contest the presidential election.
Maswadi Rauf, a political expert from the University of Indonesia, criticized the restriction as undemocratic, saying: "Such a legal limitation is excessive."
According to Maswadi, all political parties contesting the general election should have the political right to nominate their own presidential and vice presidential candidates.
"To be democratic, if we agree with, let's say, 100 political parties contesting the general election, we should be consistent and accept the presence of 100 candidates contesting the next presidential election," he said in a discussion on the bill here on Friday.
Abdillah Toha, deputy chairman of the National Mandate Party (PAN), and Zaenal Arifin, a legislator from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) concurred, saying there should be further discussions to soften the limitations on presidential candidates.
The bill was prepared by the Ministry of Home Affairs but its substance, including the presidential candidacy requirements, has won the political support of the PDI Perjuangan and Golkar Party, the two major factions in the legislature.
PAN completely opposes Article 5 of the bill on restrictions on presidential candidates, saying it was undemocratic.
Zaenal Arifin a member of the House special committee reading the bill, and Firman Djaya Daely, deputy secretary of the PDI Perjuangan faction in the House, conceded that the legal requirements restricting presidential candidates was unfair and said their factions were ready to delete the offending sections during the bill's deliberation.
Maswadi emphasized that the requirements were not compatible with the amended 1945 Constitution.
Article 6 A (2) of the Constitution provides that pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates are nominated by the political parties or coalitions of political parties, so that there were no legal restrictions provided for in the national charter.
Maswadi, Abdillah and Zaenal suggested that the quota should be lowered to give equal chances to political parties to nominate their candidates.
Furthermore, Zaenal said less draconian restrictions would likely be necessary, but added that the smaller political parties could form coalitions to contest the presidential election.
"Coalitions based on similar political platforms would create a strong government," he added.
The coordinator of the Independent Committee for Electoral Monitoring (KIPP), Ray Rangkuti, agreed that more relaxed requirements for presidential candidates were needed, and said that coalitions of political parties based on similar platforms would create stronger government.
"If a coalition is based on a plan to secure executive seats, it tends to ignore the differences in the parties' political platforms. Thus, the coalition won't be strong," Rangkuti added.
The House special committee is scheduled to resume the deliberation of the bill on Monday despite the ongoing recess, when the committee will hear the government's stance on the bill.