Glembert
KN. The Parliamentary Threshold (PT) issue is a central issue for the People’s Voice Sovereignty Movement (GKSR), which consists of eight non-parliamentary political parties, including the Labor Party. There are at least three important factors that need to be highlighted in regulating the PT, as stated by the President of the Labor Party, Said Iqbal.
First, the Constitutional Court (MK) Decision Number 116/PUU-XXI/2023, which essentially states that lawmakers are obliged to amend the norms and PT figures in the Election Law, as long as they do not conflict with political rights, popular sovereignty, and rationality. The spirit and substance of the Constitutional Court Decision mandates a reduction in the PT figure, not an increase.
“If the PT regulation is changed by increasing the figure above 4%, it would violate morality, rationality, and be an intolerable injustice. The Constitutional Court would certainly overturn such a regulation. The Labor Party would certainly challenge it,” said Said Iqbal.
In this context, the proposal to increase the PT figure above 4% must be firmly rejected. This is because the idea clearly contradicts the constitutional mandate, as stipulated in Constitutional Court Decision Number 116/PUU-XXI/2023. The second important point to highlight is the fact that with the implementation of the 4% PT alone, tens of millions of valid votes are wasted in the election. This would be even more so if the PT figure were increased.
The Labor Party has data, and we can prove that more than 57.1 million valid votes were wasted due to the implementation of the 4% PT in the 2019 Election. In fact, in the 2024 Election, the number exceeded 60.6 million votes. On average, the number of wasted votes in these two elections was above 40%.
What kind of democracy do we want to build if tens of millions of votes are consistently wasted in every election due to the 4% PT rule?
The third important factor to highlight is the PT calculation method, which is based on the national number of valid votes for political parties. This rule contradicts numerous Constitutional Court decisions, which essentially state that election regulations must be linked to electoral districts or electoral districts. Please review Constitutional Court Decisions Number 19/PUU-XVII/2019, Number 20/PUU-XVII/2019, Number 28/PUU-XXII/2024, and Decision Number 137/PUUXXII/2024. In all of these decisions, the Constitutional Court firmly states that electoral districts must be considered a crucial element in establishing election regulations.
Therefore, when discussing PT rules, these rules must always be linked to electoral districts. Therefore, the basis for calculating PT should refer to the valid vote count for each political party in each electoral district, not the national vote count. This is where the problem lies.
Said Iqbal emphasized that the Labor Party and the GKSR are currently formulating a fair and democratic PT rule concept. The first option: if PT rules remain in effect, then the calculation must be based on the vote count in the electoral district, not the national vote count. The second option: if the PT rule remains based on the national vote count, the figure must be lowered. Just 1%. A third option is to abolish the PT rule and replace it with a separate faction system within the House of Representatives (DPR).
This third option would allow political parties in the DPR to be separated into two large factions: a pro-government faction and a counter-government faction. This idea could be discussed in more depth by all political parties and election stakeholders.
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