Indonesia’s constitutional court ruled against a petition to return to the closed-list system that requires balloting of political parties rather than individual lawmakers.
(Bloomberg) — Indonesia’s constitutional court ruled against a petition to return to the closed-list system that requires balloting of political parties rather than individual lawmakers.
The court on Thursday rejected the arguments made by six individuals, two of whom are from political parties, including the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle or PDI-P. The petition was intended to impact how Indonesians vote for members of parliament and not the presidential election.
The ruling upholds direct participation in the world’s third-largest democracy through the open voting system introduced in 2008, which allows citizens to directly vote for their candidates of choice instead of having to pick political parties that will then decide who will sit in parliament. The judgment assures that Indonesia can keep to its election timeline, with polls scheduled for Feb. 14, 2024.
The verdict is also a win for the eight of nine political parties that opposed the petition. The parties are already preparing their candidates for the upcoming polls, when some 205 million voters will cast their ballots for the legislative, gubernatorial and presidential elections — all held simultaneously for the first time in the country’s history.
A shift to a closed-list system would have given the biggest ruling party PDI-P — of which President Joko Widodo is a member — greater sway in the polls. The party has a larger and more longstanding voter base compared to smaller and newer parties that rely on the popularity of individual candidates to bring in the ballots.
PDI-P had argued in its appeal that a closed system would give political parties greater oversight on campaign spending, limiting the need for vote-buying employed by contesting candidates that’s pervasive in Indonesia’s political campaigns. Election spending is huge in Indonesia, with one estimate stating that the upcoming polls will add roughly 179 trillion rupiah ($12 billion) to the economy, well above total expenses in the 2014 and 2019 polls.
–With assistance from Norman Harsono and Claire Jiao.
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