The Law of Regress

A day before the July 9 presidential election, a plenary session was held at the House of Representatives (DPR) in Senayan. The session commenced at 7:30pm local time and was attended by 467 lawmakers. Its convening was generally unknown to the public, with many people preoccupied with the excitement of the contest between the two presidential candidates, Joko Widodo and Prabowo Subianto.

The session was held to revise Legislative Institution Law No. 27/2009, known as the MD3. There was disagreement in the room because with the revision of Article 82, the position of House speaker would no longer be automatically granted to the party that won the legislative election. Instead, the speaker would be elected by legislators.

July 15, 2014