Should the Election Bill Be a Government or DPR Initiative? PPI Director's Analysis

A proposal for the Election Bill to become a government initiative has emerged but was rejected by PDIP’s Deputy Chairman and Commission II DPR member Deddy Sitorus. So, which is better?

Executive Director of the Indonesian Political Parameters (PPI) Adi Prayitno believes the Election Bill must be recognised as the life and death of political parties. Therefore, he says, the DPR should be more aggressive in initiating the Election Bill.

“It must be acknowledged that the election law is indeed the life and death of political parties. Whatever the title—presidential elections or legislative elections—the key lies in political parties. The DPR should be more aggressive in discussing the Election Law,” said Adi Prayitno when contacted on Sunday (10/5/2026).

He assesses that many matters will be discussed in the Election Law, such as parliamentary thresholds to electoral district issues. According to him, the issues in the Election Law are very close to parties.

“Because in the Election Law, many crucial issues will be discussed, such as parliamentary thresholds, vote conversion methods, multi-member electoral districts, money politics, and so on. These issues are very close to parties,” he stated.

Furthermore, Adi believes there will be interests of several parties that are not well accommodated if the bill becomes a government initiative. Moreover, not all political parties are part of the coalition.

“Clearly, the DPR’s issues are all about party people. Usually, party interest battles also occur in the DPR. If it’s a government initiative, it’s very possible that the interests of several parties won’t be well accommodated. Especially since not all political parties are part of the government coalition,” he said.

In addition, Adi also touched on the Constitutional Court ruling that affects parliamentary thresholds and presidential thresholds. The DPR, he says, needs to discuss this.

“The Election Law has not been discussed by the DPR for a long time. Yet, there are many Constitutional Court rulings and crucial issues that must be addressed. For example, the Constitutional Court ruling on whether to raise or lower the parliamentary threshold, the abolition of the presidential threshold, proposals for parliamentary thresholds to apply to provincial DPRDs, blacklisting perpetrators of money politics, and so on,” he added.