"The Democrat Party will not return to the old period. In the last election, the system had been proven to be working well. So we will maintain it," he said.
Pacitan, East Java (ANTARA News) - The ruling Democrat Party will be consistent in supporting the open proportional system of elections and a four-percent parliamentary threshold, secretary general Edhie "Ibas" Baskoro has said.

"The Democrat Party will not return to the old period. In the last election, the system had been proven to be working well. So we will maintain it," he said when opening a model market here on Tuesday.

He noted that the open proportional system was more accommodating to the hopes of the voters. Under this system, candidates for the legislature would also be able to compete more openly, he added.

Further, he said, political parties are given the freedom to present their best members, while those who are elected will be the candidates who actually receive the largest number of votes, rather than because of their numbers on the party list.

He said the open proportional system was, therefore, considered to be able to accommodate the demand for the implementation of public sovereignty and assure the effectiveness of the representation of people who are spread unequally throughout various regions of the country.

He added that under the closed proportional system, on the other hand, legislators would be elected based upon their consecutive numbers on the party`s list and candidates who win the largest number of votes would not be guaranteed to automatically become legislators, since voters would vote for parties, not candidates.

Baskoro, meanwhile, said he hoped that the general elections bill currently being considered could be passed upon consensus, rather than a vote.

However, if a vote is held, the Democrat Party would refer its mechanism to the plenary of the House of Representatives.

"We have several options that we wish to submit, such as whether the vote should be done as a package or on a partial basis. It is still being discussed. We have positioned ourselves to believe that a compromise would be reached," he said.

Regarding the parliamentary threshold, Baskoro said the Democrat Party would stick to a four percent threshold, but whatever the decision is, members hoped it would be better than the previous threshold, which was only 2.5 percent.

He said this was meant to improve the system of general elections to assure a natural selection of election participants in the country`s general elections, which continues to see very large numbers of candidates. (*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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