House Deputy Speaker Urges Submission of General Elections Bill
Jakarta. Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives Fadli Zon called on the government to accelerate the submission of the general elections bill in an effort to hasten the roll-out of preparation of 2019 elections mid next year.
“If [the bill] is sent to the House soon, the deliberation time will be longer, with hopes to produce a more qualified law,” Fadli said on Friday (26/08).
The bill, which merges the 2012 Legislative Election Law, the 2oo8 Law on Presidential Elections and the 2011 Electoral Committee Law, has been included in the national legislation program for 2016.
“Ideally, the electoral tools should be prepared 22 to 25 months ahead of the election. Currently, the remaining time is 32 months. However, if [the bill] is not discussed and passed into law as soon as possible, the work of KPU [General Elections Committee] will be delayed to make related regulations,” Fadli said.
He also suggested the 2017 simultaneous regional elections, which includes the Jakarta gubernatorial race, would dominate the focus of political parties at the expense of robust reforms.
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