REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The Indonesian government and the House of Representatives (DPR), through the adoption of a parliamentary threshold, are reducing the number of political parties which will take part in the general elections, a legislator said.
"Simplification of the political process is not just discourse, as it has been undertaken from time to time," Deputy Chairman of the DPR's Commission III on Legal Affairs, Hakam Naja, told Antara here on Saturday.
Naja said the number of political parties taking part in the general elections has been reduced in stages. "The electoral threshold has always been changed in the face of an election. This is one of the steps taken to simplify the political process, and their number of parties now has been significantly reduced," Naja said.
The government will conduct the next general elections in 2014. According to the General Elections Commission (KPU), the legislative elections are slated for April 9 and the presidential elections will be held on July 9, 2014.
In the 2004 general elections, the parliamentary threshold was set at two percent, and this was increased to 2.5 percent in the 2009 general elections. The threshold has further been raised to 3.5 percent for the 2014 elections. The number of political parties fielding candidates was recorded at 36 in the 2009 elections, but this has been reduced to 12 political parties for next year.
Naja, however, rued the changing of the parliamentary threshold for each round of general elections. "It seems that we lack the idea of producing a blueprint, such as we should not change the threshold and regulations each time an election is to be held," he said.
He said that the 3.5 percent parliamentary threshold could still be raised further, so that the government does not have to change it again before the 2019 elections.
In the meantime, late last month President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono urged the people of Indonesia to exercise their right to vote in the general elections scheduled for next year.
"People must use their voting rights so that they don't regret missing the opportunity after the elections are over," said the President during a working visit to Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan. He expressed his hope that the public would take part in the direct elections next year to choose the country's president and lawmakers.
According to data from the General Elections Commission (KPU), the country's voter turnout was 93.33 percent in the 1999 general elections, dropped to 84.9 percent in 2004 , and declined further to 70.99 percent in 2009. Lingkaran Survei Indonesia (LSI), the country?s leading survey and political consultancy institution, has forecast that about 60 percent of voters will participate in the 2014 elections
Prof Ikrar Nusa Bhakti, a researcher with the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), opined that the voter turnout will be higher if the Governor of Jakarta, Joko Widodo, better known as Jokowi, runs for President in 2014. "If Jokowi runs, it is certain that the number of absentee voters will be low," he said.
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