Yogyakarta, February 20 2025─As a response towards the flawed policies regarding elections in Indonesia, Perludem and Polgov UGM organized a seminar titled “Urgency for the Revision of Election Laws in an Effort to Fix the Election System”. This event, which was organized at the Fisipol Auditorium located on the Fourth Floor of the Fisipol Mandiri Building, invited Khoirunnisa Nur Agustyanti (Executive Director of Perludem), Abdul Gaffar Karim (Lecturer at Fisipol UGM), Zainal Arifin Mochtar (Lecturer at UGM’s Faculty of Law), Feri Amsari (Lecturer at UNAND’s Faculty of Law) as speakers dan Fadli Ramadhanil (Program Manager of Perludem) as the discussion moderator.
Revision of the Election Law is seen as something that is very important in tackling the challenges and needs of Indonesian democracy that is always developing. In an attempt to promote efforts in increasing the democracy index, one of the main suggestions is to roll out snap elections, both regionally and nationally. Other than that, Perludem also proposed implementing a Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) System as an alternative for a more inclusive system of election. The MMP System is believed to be able to deliver more equal opportunities for marginalized groups, increasing the legitimacy for election results, and pushing active participation of all elements in civil society. With this system, it is hoped that active participation can be increased in elections, so that it can produce accountable election processes.
This separation is hoped to be able to reduce the technical difficulties and administrative troubles in organizing elections, as well as increasing the participation of civil society in the political process. According to Abdul Gaffar Karim, the arrangement of elections in Indonesia has accommodated for the management and technical aspects of things, but it still lacks active and meaningful participation. Revision of the Election Law should involve real participation that is meaningful from Indonesia’s civil society, so that it can create pro-democratic policies. “The arrangement of elections in the near future should ensure that our election system can push meaningful participation and true demand, that is the people actually know what they want,” Abdul Gaffar explained.This event, which was open to the public and was attended by college students, activists, policymakers, as well as the citizens who cared enough about the future of Indonesian democracy, can work as a potential vessel in pushing the creation of the instrument of democratic accountability. This seminar also can work as a momentum in pushing constructive dialogue and collaboration between stakeholders in attempting to fix the system of election law in Indonesia.
Revision of the Election Law is seen as something that is very important in tackling the challenges and needs of Indonesian democracy that is always developing. In an attempt to promote efforts in increasing the democracy index, one of the main suggestions is to roll out snap elections, both regionally and nationally. Other than that, Perludem also proposed implementing a Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) System as an alternative for a more inclusive system of election. The MMP System is believed to be able to deliver more equal opportunities for marginalized groups, increasing the legitimacy for election results, and pushing active participation of all elements in civil society. With this system, it is hoped that active participation can be increased in elections, so that it can produce accountable election processes.
This separation is hoped to be able to reduce the technical difficulties and administrative troubles in organizing elections, as well as increasing the participation of civil society in the political process. According to Abdul Gaffar Karim, the arrangement of elections in Indonesia has accommodated for the management and technical aspects of things, but it still lacks active and meaningful participation. Revision of the Election Law should involve real participation that is meaningful from Indonesia’s civil society, so that it can create pro-democratic policies. “The arrangement of elections in the near future should ensure that our election system can push meaningful participation and true demand, that is the people actually know what they want,” Abdul Gaffar explained.This event, which was open to the public and was attended by college students, activists, policymakers, as well as the citizens who cared enough about the future of Indonesian democracy, can work as a potential vessel in pushing the creation of the instrument of democratic accountability. This seminar also can work as a momentum in pushing constructive dialogue and collaboration between stakeholders in attempting to fix the system of election law in Indonesia.