Potential Vulnerabilities in the Stages of Election Contesting Political Parties

The Background

The stages of the Simultaneous Election that will attract public attention are the issue of election participants, namely political parties. Candidates participating in the election must administratively register with the General Elections Commission. As is customary in procedural democracy, the General Election Commission must prepare a set of regulations relating to the registration, verification, and determination of political parties participating in the election.

From the stage of registration of election participants, there are issues regarding the treatment of the General Elections Commission towards all political parties. The chairman of the General Elections Commission, Hasyim Asyari, from several statements in the media explained the difference in the treatment of the results of the Constitutional Court Decision Number 55 of 2020 which divided three categories of political parties, namely the political parties participating in the 2019 general election that passed the parliamentary threshold, and the two political parties participating in the 2019 general election which did not qualify. parliamentary threshold and the three new parties.

The chairman of the General Elections Commission said that political parties that pass the parliamentary threshold and have representatives in the House of Representatives are only sufficient for administrative verification and do not need factual verification. Meanwhile, for political parties that do not pass the parliamentary threshold and new political parties, administrative and factual verification is mandatory.

The Constitutional Court through Decision Number 55/PUU-XVIII/2020 Stating Article 173 paragraph (1) of Law Number 7 of 2017 concerning General Elections (State Gazette of the Republic of Indonesia of 2017 Number 182, Supplement to the State Gazette of the Republic of Indonesia Number 6109) which states:

“Election Contesting Political Parties are political parties that have passed the verification by the General Election Commission”, contrary to the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia and have no binding legal force as long as it is not interpreted, “Political parties that have passed the verification of the 2019 General Election and passed /fulfilling the provisions of the Parliamentary Threshold in the 2019 Election are still administratively verified but not factually verified, as for political parties that do not qualify/do not meet the provisions of the Parliamentary Threshold, political parties that only have representation at the Provincial/District/City level of the Regional House of Representatives and Political parties that do not have representation at the level of the Regional House of Representatives at the Provincial/Regency/City level, are required to be re-verified administratively and factually, this is the same as the provisions that apply to new political parties”.

In accordance with the mandate of the Election Law, since the approval of the General Election Commission Regulation, Bawaslu has automatically moved to oversee all stages of registration of political parties as candidates for election participants. The supervision of the registration of election participants is based on Article 180 of Law Number 7 of 2017 concerning Elections, where in paragraph (1) it is stated:

"The General Election Supervisory Body, Provincial Election Supervisory Body, and Regency/City General Election Supervisory Body shall supervise the the implementation of verification of political parties as candidates for election participants carried out by the General Election Commission, Provincial General Election Commission, and Regency/City General Election Commission".

For information, the stages of registration, verification, and determination of political parties participating in the 2024 General Election begin on August 1, 2022. If you look at the 2019 Simultaneous Elections, there are various administrative technical problems during the registration, factual verification, and determination of political parties participating in the elections. Therefore, it is very important to open a room for discussion in identifying problems that will arise during the registration, verification, and determination of participants in the 2024 election.

For this reason, Bawaslu feels it is important to create a discussion room that will listen to the views of the General Elections Commission to explain plans to improve the stages of registration, verification, and determination of political parties participating in the election. On the other hand, this discussion will listen to the views of observers who convey their views on potential problems and evaluations of the registration stages of political parties participating in the 2019 election. At the same time, this discussion will listen to the presentation of Commission II of the House of Representatives as part of the legislators. (with the Ministry of Home Affairs) for Law Number 7 of 2017 concerning General Elections.

Purpose and objectives

a. Discussion Purpose

This public discussion is intended to identify potential problems that will occur at the stages of registration, verification, and determination of political parties participating in the general election in accordance with the experience of the 2019 election stages.

b. Discussion Purpose

This Public Discussion aims to:

• To convey the results of the identification of vulnerabilities in the stages of registration, verification, and determination of political parties participating in the General Election.

• To convey the technical implementation of the stages of registration, verification, and determination of the political parties participating in the General Election.

• To convey the views of Commission II of the House of Representatives, Observers, and Academics regarding the process of registration, verification, and determination of political parties participating in the election

Outputs and Discussion Results

a. Output

• Bawaslu receives input for monitoring the registration, verification, and determination of political parties participating in the election;

• To provide advice to the General Elections Commission in accepting registration, verification, and determination of political parties participating in the election;

b. Results

• Election supervisors have sharpened working guidelines for supervising the registration, verification, and determination of political parties participating in the election;

• Many people understand the urgency of registering, verifying, and determining the political parties participating in the general election

• Political parties understand the legal process and space available in matters of registration, verification, and determination of political parties participating in the general election

Discussion Method

a) Presentation from resource persons

b) Discussion

c) FAQ

Resource Person

a) Lolly Suhenty, Coordinator of the Division of Prevention, Community Participation and Public Relations of the General Elections Supervisory Agency of the Republic of Indonesia;

b) Idham Holik, Head of the Technical Division for the Implementation of the General Election Commission of the Republic of Indonesia;

c) Saan Mustopa, Deputy Chairman of Commission II of the House of Representatives of the Republic of Indonesia

d) Fadli Ramadhanil, Program Manager of the Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem);

e) Abhan, Democracy Activist and Advocate