Stabilitas Sistem Presidensial Indonesia Melalui Pemilihan Umum Serentak dan Presidential Threshold

THE result of the general elections demonstrates that multi-political parties in Indonesia has produced a highly fragmented parliament, poor composition in the parliament to supporting the executive (minority president) and coalition formations prone to change. This situation is parallel with the unstable scenario of the presidential system getting the government trapped in a situation of divided government. The result of the simultaneous general elections is expected to produce a size of composition in the parliament which is parallel with the political composition in the executive, in order for the executive to perform government effectively. Nevertheless, the performance of the simultaneous general elections combined with a majority run off of the presidential election system belies matters which can be a threat to the successful achievement of the objective of the simultaneous general elections. Such condition will lead the political parties into general elections by having their respective candidate presidents, because they deem the winner of the presidential election will not be achieved at the first round. The political parties use the first round to achieve a coattail effect which they expect would enlarge their chance to place as many as possible representatives in the parliament. If that does not happen, there is the possibility that a highly fragmented parliament will be formed, resulting in the absence of a majority power, and enlarging the potential to having a minority president. The threshold of presidential candidacy is an effective measured way to overcome that problem. A limited number of presidential candidates can be assured through a threshold of presidential candidacy. We may expect the benefits of the simultaneous general elections in a constellation of limited number of presidential candidates.