Jakarta – The results of a Kompas Research and Development (Litbang Kompas) survey show that the majority of people agree with the removal of the electoral threshold that was required to nominate a presidential candidate or the presidential threshold, which was abolished by a Constitutional Court (MK) ruling earlier this month.
According to the survey, 66.1 percent of respondents agree with the presidential threshold being removed. Only 31.3 percent did not agree with this.
Out of the respondents who agree, as many as 48.9 percent agree because they believe that voters will have more choices of presidential and vice presidential candidates, 29.6 percent believe that the political parties (parpol) will be able to nominate their cadre as candidates and 16.3 percent believe that the removal of the threshold will made it easy for the political parties to put forward candidates without having to form a coalition.
Meanwhile, 50.1 percent of respondents who do not agree stated that the removal of the rule will make voters confused because there will be many presidential and vice presidential candidates. Then, 44.2 percent are concerned that there would be unqualified presidential and vice presidential candidates and 3.5 percent believe that not all political parties are ready to submit candidates.
Litbang Kompas also asked whether respondents agreed that if all political parties can submit candidates, then there should be a provision so that the proposed candidates are their own cadre. The majority of respondents or around 64.7 percent agreed, 33.8 percent did not agree and 1.5 percent did not know.
This survey was conducted on January 6-9 and involved 528 respondents. The sample was determined randomly. The survey had a 95 percent level of confidence and a 4.22 percent margin of error.
The presidential threshold regulated under Law number 7/2027 on Elections was declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court on January 2.
The Constitutional Court was of the view that Article 222 of the Election Law is not in line with the principle of equality in law and governance, the right to struggle collectively, as well as fair legal certainty as stipulated in Article 27 Paragraph (1), Article 28C Paragraph (2), Article 28D Paragraph (1) and Article 28i Paragraph (2) of the 1945 Constitution (UUD 45).
Coordinating Minister for Law, Human Rights, Immigration and Correctional Institutions Yusril Ihza Mahendra has stated that the Constitutional Court's ruling is final and binding. He said that the government respects and is bound by the Constitutional Court's ruling and will not pursue any legal efforts to challenge it.
"In accordance with the provisions of Article 24C of the UUD 45, the MK's latest ruling is final and binding (bersifat final dan mengikat)", Mahendra said in a written statement on Friday January 3. (mnf/tsa)
Notes
A longer and more detailed discussion of the Litbang Kompas survey results is available here: https://www.kompas.id/artikel/publik-setuju-penghapusan-presidential-treshold.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Survei Kompas: 66,1 Persen Warga Setuju Presidential Threshold Dihapus".]