After repeated delays caused by gridlock during lobbying, the House of Representatives’ special committee assigned to deliberate the Elections Bill finally elected leaders of the committee in a voting process, which ran until late Monday evening.

During the voting process, 29 committee members elected a chairmanship, which included one chairman and three deputy chairmen. Neither of the two largest factions, namely the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the Golkar Party, secured a seat in the chairmanship, however.

National Awakening Party (PKB) politician Muhammad Lukman Edhy was elected as chairman of the committee, which will play a vital role in directing the deliberation process of the bill. The three lawmakers elected as his deputies were Riza Patria from the Gerindra Party, Benny Kabur Harman from the Democratic Party and Yandri Susanto from the National Mandate Party (PAN).

“The election ran smoothly although its results were unexpected,” House Deputy Speaker Fadli Zon of the Gerindra Party said.

Although the chairmanship’s decision-making process is collective collegial in concept, each leader in the special committee can play a role in determining the course of the deliberation process, including the fate of proposals related to the 2019 legislative and presidential elections submitted by each faction.

Among the much anticipated proposals in the elections system, the legislative and presidential systems will set a minimum percentage of votes required by political parties to be eligible for the 2019 simultaneous legislative and presidential elections. It will also be discussed whether or not to maintain the existing open system that allows voters to choose candidates, (ebf)