Reconstructing Indonesia’s Electoral System to Balance Popular Sovereignty and Government Effectiveness
Abstract
Elections are a constitutional instrument for exercising popular sovereignty and establishing an effective government. Challenges arise when electoral system design seeks to maximize political representation but produces political fragmentation, while efforts to simplify the party system may reduce the conversion of votes into parliamentary seats. This study examines the relationship between popular sovereignty, political representation, government effectiveness, and electoral system design, focusing on the parliamentary threshold, presidential threshold, open-list proportional representation, and simultaneous elections. This research employs a normative juridical method using statutory, conceptual, and case approaches. The findings indicate that electoral thresholds cannot be regarded as the sole instrument for achieving effective government. Constitutional Court Decision No. 116/PUU-XXI/2023 upheld the 4% parliamentary threshold as constitutional for the 2024 elections while making its constitutionality conditional for the 2029 elections and subsequent elections. Meanwhile, Constitutional Court Decision No. 62/PUU-XXII/2024 abolished the presidential threshold. Subsequently, Constitutional Court Decision No. 135/PUU-XXII/2024 provided for the separation of national and local elections beginning in 2029. These developments demonstrate the need for systemic electoral reform rather than reliance on a single regulatory instrument. Such reform should involve establishing constitutionally and empirically grounded threshold policies, strengthening political party institutions, improving political finance governance, and redesigning election schedules to enhance the quality of political participation. This study concludes that electoral system reconstruction must balance popular sovereignty and government effectiveness through proportionate, evidence-based, and constitutionally accountable policies.
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