It was not the first time Indonesia used the 20 percent threshold. We used in the 2009 and 2014 elections . Why it did not make a big issue then?" Jokowi said.
Cikarang (ANTARA News) - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) said simplification of presidential threshold to 20 percent in the election law is important for the Indonesian political vision in the future.

The president was commenting on critic by the general chairman of Gerindra Party Prabowo Subianto, who described the law on presidential threshold as a political joke.

Prabowo Subianto criticized the law after talks with the general chairman of the Democratic Party Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Cikeas, in the house of the former president .

"We do not want to be the laughing stock in history. Please, go ahead if you want to be in power for 5, 10, 50 years, but at the end the history would judge. Gerindra would not want to go against logic. The presidential threshold of 20 percent is a political joke, cheating the people. I would not be part of it," Prabowo, who lost to Jokowi in the last presidential election, said .

Jokowi said on Friday the 20 percent presidential threshold is very important for the countrys political vision in the future.

It was not the first time Indonesia used the 20 percent threshold. We used in the 2009 and 2014 elections . Why it did not make a big issue then?" he said.

He said if we use a presidential threshold of 0 percent as demanded by parties outside the government coalition, the elected president would be in difficulty to get support from the parliament.

"I would like to give an example, if the presidential threshold was 0 percent, and a candidate of a small political party won. Just imagine the difficulty to win support from Parliament," he said pointing to the problem he faced in running his government when in the first year of his presidency he had only a minority support of 38 percent.

He said he hoped the people would understand what the government is aiming for.

"This is a political process of which the people must understand. Please dont make a big issue of it as if it is a blunder, especially as it is a product not only of the government but also of the Parliament," he said.

Anyone not satisfied with the product of democracy could file a judicial review with the Constitutional Court, he said.

A plenary session on July 21, the Parliament passed the bill on election into a law despite walk-out by four factions Gerindra, PKS, PAN, and Democrat.

The majority 322 members of the Parliament voted for the "presidential threshold" of 20-25 percent with parliamentary of 4 percent.

The factions supporting the government include the ruling party PDI-Perjuangan, Partai Golkar, PPP, PKB, Hanura and Nasdem.

Gerindra has said it would seek judicial review of the new election law with the Constitutional Court.

The meeting last night between Prabowo and Yudhoyono drew wide attentions with observers seeing it an early step toward forming a coalition to face Jokowi, who is expected to seek reelection in 2019.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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