Pinning Hopes on the House

· 3 minutes read

The vote count for the 2019 election is not yet finished. However, through quick counts, it is believed the composition of the upcoming House of Representatives membership will not see much change.

This daily newspaper reported that with the composition of political parties and membership that is not much different from the current House, the composition of the House for the 2019-2024 period is predicted not to change much. From the quick counts, it is predicted that nine parties will gain legislative seats in the coming period (Kompas, 4/26/2019).

Ten parties currently have representatives in the House for the 2014-2019 period, namely the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the Golkar Party, the Gerindra Party, the Democratic Party and the National Mandate Party (PAN), the National Awakening Party (PKB), the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), the United Development Party (PPP), the NasDem Party and the Hanura Party.

It is estimated that Hanura will lose seats in the House in the coming period. The PPP will also not have seats at the House. If you follow the logic of quick counts, with a margin of error (error threshold) of no more than 1 percent, the PPP, which is predicted to gain support of around 4.6 percent, may drop below the legislative threshold. Below 4 percent of the vote.

While the number of political parties that have representation in the House has the potential to decrease in the period of 2019-2024, on the contrary the number of legislators in the upcoming House is actually bigger. Article 186 of Law No. 7/2017 concerning elections states that there are additional members of the House from 560 to 575 people. Based on an assessment by legislative watchdog Formappi, the organization found 529 House members for the 2014-2019 period had sought reelection in the 2019 election.

It also found that out of 529 legislators at the central level, 349 of them were put at No. 1 on the ballots. Even though the election of House members is based on the highest number of votes, candidates who are put at No. 1 would benefit more. In addition, the number of House members in the 2019-2024 period increases, and the number of parties that can place their representatives in the House has the potential to decline, the chances of incumbent legislators retaining office at Senayan are very large.

The House has three functions, namely lawmaking, budgeting and supervision. On the legislation side, from the target of deliberating 189 draft laws in the National Legislation Program, the House for the 2014-2019 period was only able to complete 22 bills. In terms of budgeting, the Indonesia Corruption Watch noted, 22 members of the House in the current period were involved in corruption cases. The people’s representatives at this time are also considered to have had minimal achievements.

Whether or not they retain legislative posts awaits the results of the General Election Commission’s vote counting. We can expect new faces at the House. However, if the elected legislators are mostly the old faces with minimal achievements, what can we say. That is the people’s choice. Who knows, in the 2019-2024 period, they may become sensible and commit to performing and devoting themselves for the interests of the people.

Editor:

kompascetak