The Constitutional Court has ruled that forming electoral districts and determining the seats allocated to the DPR and the DPRD fall under the authority of the KPU.
JAKARTA, KOMPAS — The Constitutional Court's decision to give the General Elections Commission (KPU) the authority to draw up electoral districts (dapil) and to determine the allocation of district seats at the House of Representatives (DPR) and the provincial legislative councils (DPRDs) presents an opportunity for equal representation in the 2024 election.
To date, there is still significant disparity in the "value" of votes among electoral districts.
Constitutional Court (MK) Decision No. 80/PUU-XX/2022, which was read out in Jakarta on Tuesday (20/12/2022), ruled in favor some of the requests submitted by the Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem).
Among other things, Perludem had questioned Article 187, Paragraph (5) and Article 189, Paragraph (5) of Law No. 7/2017 on the elections, which regulates electoral districts and seats per electoral district for the House and provincial DPRDs as listed in Appendix III and IV of Law No. 7/2017. Meanwhile, Article 192, Paragraph (4) stipulates that the provisions on electoral districts and seat per electoral district be regulated in the KPU regulations.
The Constitutional Court stated in its ruling that Article 187, Paragraph (5) of Law No. 7/2017 was unconstitutional, as long as it did not refer to "the electoral districts as mentioned in Paragraph (1) and the number of seats in each electoral district for House members as referred to in Paragraph (2) are regulated in the KPU Regulations. The same thing also applies to Article 189, Paragraph (5)”.
In the considerations, the judicial panel said the provisions in the law on electoral districts and seat allocations had created legal uncertainty. The Constitutional Court also emphasized that the formation of electoral districts must refer to the principles stipulated in Article 185 of the Election Law, such as equality of votes, adherence to a proportional election system, proportionality, territorial integrity, jurisdiction, cohesiveness and continuity.
However, the Constitutional Court found that the provisions on electoral districts in appendices III and IV of the Election Law had resulted in a significant disparity in the "value" of votes among the electoral districts. In addition, the number and allocation of seats were disproportionate and several electoral districts did not comply with the principle of territorial integrity.
Constitutional Court justice Saldi Isra said the stages for determining the number of seats and the electoral districts ran from 14 Oct. 2022 to 9 Feb. 2023, which meant that these stages had not ended yet.
We have to consider the aspects of representativeness and accountability, and then the proportionality of the number of seats allocated at the central, provincial and district/municipal levels.
"The Constitutional Court must emphasize that the determination of the electoral districts and the number of seats per electoral district must [follow] the principles for establishing electoral districts as stipulated in Article 185, Law No. 7/2017. Apart from that, determining the electoral districts and reviewing the number of seats per district must also be carried out for the benefit of holding the 2024 [elections] and [all] subsequent elections," Saldi said.
KPU chairman Hasyim Asy'ari said that he would review the Constitutional Court's ruling, especially its considerations. The KPU would discuss the matter with a number of experts to provide their views and to assist the KPU in conducting a study on electoral districts.
"We have to consider the aspects of representativeness and accountability, and then the proportionality of the number of seats allocated at the central, provincial and district/municipal levels," said Hasyim.
Disproportionate votes
Perludem's lawyer, Fadli Ramadhanil, said that the results of the recount in converting the 2020 population census into 575 seats in the House showed a disproportionate allocation of seats for the country’s 34 provinces. An analysis showed that only 17 provinces had proportionate allocation between their voter population and the number of House seats they were allocated. Meanwhile, 12 provinces had a representation surplus and five provinces had a representation deficit.
The 2019 election also showed significant inequality in the value of votes. For example, the East Java XI electoral district, which comprised Bangkalan, Sampang, Pamekasan and Sumenep and was allocated eight seats, had the highest number of votes per seat at a minimum of 212,081 votes per seat. Meanwhile, the North Kalimantan electoral district, each seat was worth 37,616 votes.
"The value of seats in each electoral district is definitely different, because of the difference in the number of voters and the number of votes gained by each political party, but the components of the seat allocation per electoral district will greatly affect whether the value of a seat in an electoral district is low or high. For this reason, it is very important to pay attention to the principle of equal value per vote when forming the electoral districts," said Fadli.
According to him, the Constitutional Court's decision also presented an extraordinary opportunity for election reform, because there was still time to improve the level of public representation, which was considered unfair in some electoral districts.
Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) secretary-general Hasto Kristiyanto said the provisions in the Election Law offered very clear guidelines for the KPU, and with the House’s oversight, it was hoped that the electoral districts embraced the principle of equal representation while still considering national interests as a whole.
The KPU must be guided by Law No. 7/2017, which regulated the principles for electoral districts, including equality of votes, proportionality, integrality and cohesiveness. Therefore, although the arrangement of the electoral districts in the annex to Law No. 7/2017 seemed mathematically disproportionate, there were other principles that must be followed, namely social cohesiveness and territorial integrity.
United Development Party (PPP) deputy chair Arsul Sani added that granting the KPU the authority to allocate electoral districts for the House and provincial DPRDs was not a problem, as long as the KPU exercised its authority on the principles of proportionate and fair representation for each region. So far, the KPU was still involved in making decisions related to the allocation of electoral districts regulated in the annex to the Election Law.