REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Democratic party faction secretary Didik Mukrianto said President Joko Widodo (Jokowi)'s statement on presidential threshold was ridiculous. He believed Jokowi has simplified the problems that have different norm with a very subjective and irrational reasons.

Didik explained the presidential threshold with 20 percent of seats in the House of Representatives or 25 percent of the national legislative votes in the 2014 Election and 2019 General Election have different standing or legal and so did the logical positions. The implications of the underlying political structure were also different. 

According to Didik, starting from the 2019 election, legislative election and presidential election will be held simultaneously. Therefore, the result of 2014 election could not be used as ticket to run in the 2019 election. "It has lost legitimation to be the basis of the determination of presidential threshold on 2019 presidential election," he stated in a press release received by Republika.co.id, on Saturday (July 29).

Also read: Simplification of presidential threshold important: Jokowi

Moreover, by implementing 20 percent of presidential threshold, the cycle of national leadership might be shifted from five years into 10 years. It would then violate the Constitution. "Therefore, it has been our obligation to uphold the mandatory of Constitution," Didik said.

Jokowi said on Friday (July 28), the 20 percent presidential threshold is very important for the country's political vision in the future. 

It was not the first time Indonesia used the 20 percent threshold. We used in the 2009 and 2014 elections. "Why it did not make a big issue then?" he said. 

He said if we use a presidential threshold of 0 percent as demanded by parties outside the government coalition, the elected president would be in difficulty to get support from the parliament. 

"I would like to give an example, if the presidential threshold was 0 percent, and a candidate of a small political party won. Just imagine the difficulty to win support from Parliament," he said pointing to the problem he faced in running his government when in the first year of his presidency he had only a minority support of 38 percent.

He said he hoped the people would understand what the government is aiming for.

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