The House Rules Out Regional Election Law Revision From 2026 Priority Agenda

JAKARTA, Investortrust.id — Indonesia’s House of Representatives confirmed on Monday, Jan 19, 2026 that revision of the Regional Elections Law will not be included in the 2026 National Legislative Program, effectively shutting down debate on indirect regional elections through local councils. The statement was delivered by Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives Sufmi Dasco Ahmad, who said parliament has no plan to discuss changes to the Pilkada framework, despite growing public discourse.

Dasco spoke after a closed-door meeting with State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi and leaders of Commission II, which oversees electoral and governance affairs. He said lawmakers and the government agreed that the Pilkada law is not part of the 2026 priority agenda and has not even been considered for discussion.

“We agreed that in this year’s Prolegnas there is no agenda to discuss the Pilkada Law, so until now there has been no plan for us to deliberate it, including the discourse that regional heads would be appointed or elected through local councils,” Dasco said at the parliamentary complex in Senayan.

The clarification followed weeks of speculation triggered by renewed proposals to return regional head elections to DPRD appointments, a system abandoned after the 1998 Reformasi era. Dasco said the clarification was necessary to prevent misinformation and escalating public polemics.

Commission II chairman Rifqinizamy Karsayuda echoed the stance, stressing that the 2026 Prolegnas was finalized in October 2025 and contains no mandate to revise the Pilkada Law. He said parliament has agreed to focus solely on revising Law No. 7 of 2017 on General Elections.

“This is simply a clarification so the public debate does not go too far, repeatedly asking when the Pilkada Law will be revised,” Rifqi said. “The answer is clear: it is not in the 2026 Prolegnas.”

Rifqi added that the election law revision is aimed at implementing Constitutional Court Decision No. 135/PUU-XXII/2025, which requires the separation of national and regional elections. He emphasized that the revision will not alter the mechanism for electing the president and vice president, dismissing rumors of a return to indirect presidential elections.

The parliamentary position came after strong political and civil society resistance to the idea of indirect regional elections. Earlier this month, Megawati Soekarnoputri, chairwoman of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, publicly rejected the proposal, citing the 2025 Constitutional Court decision.

“This rejection is not merely a practical political stance. It is ideological, constitutional, and historical,” Megawati said at her party’s national meeting, arguing that direct elections are a core achievement of post-Reformasi democracy and constitutionally protected.

Labor groups have taken a similar line. Labor Party president Said Iqbal warned that electing regional leaders through DPRD would concentrate power among a small number of legislators and increase the risk of transactional politics.

“Direct elections reflect popular sovereignty,” Said said, adding that the high cost of elections stems from money politics rather than the voting mechanism itself.

Academics have also weighed in. Paramadina University rector Didik J. Rachbini cautioned that abandoning direct elections would strip citizens of voting rights and mark a democratic regression, although he acknowledged that direct elections face new challenges from disinformation, artificial intelligence, and digital manipulation.

Didik proposed a hybrid system in which candidates would emerge from popular selection but be formally chosen by DPRD, arguing it could balance efficiency with democratic legitimacy. His idea, however, has gained little traction amid broad consensus to preserve direct elections.

With parliament drawing a firm line, the 2026 legislative agenda is now set to focus on technical improvements to election governance rather than reopening the politically sensitive Pilkada debate. The stance is expected to calm markets and political actors concerned about sudden institutional shifts ahead of the next regional election cycle.