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The Regional Representative Council (, DPD; alternatively translatable as the House of Regions or the House of Regional Representatives or the Senate of Indonesia), is one of two parliamentary chambers in
Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...
. Together with the House of Representatives (DPR), it makes up the Indonesian national legislative body, the ''Majelis Permusyawaratan Rakyat'' (MPR). Under Indonesia's constitution, the authority of the DPD is limited to areas related to regional governments and can only propose and give advice on bills to the DPR. Unlike the DPR, the DPD has no direct law-making power. Its members are usually called senators instead of DPD members.


History

The idea of regional representation in parliament was initially accommodated in the original version of the 1945 Constitution, with the concept of ''Utusan Daerah'' (Regional Representatives) in the MPR, along with ''Utusan Golongan'' (Group Representatives) and members of the DPR. This is regulated in Article 2 of the constitution, which states that ''"The MPR consists of members of the DPR plus representatives from regions and groups, according to the rules established by law".'' This loose arrangement was then further regulated by various laws and regulations. In the Constitution of the United States of Indonesia enacted in 1949, the idea was realized in the form of ''Senat Republik Indonesia Serikat'' (Senate of the United States of Indonesia), representing the states and working side by side with the DPR. As a replacement for ''Utusan Daerah'', the DPD was created by the third amendment to the 1945 Constitution enacted on 9 November 2001 in a move towards
bicameralism Bicameralism is a type of legislature that is divided into two separate Deliberative assembly, assemblies, chambers, or houses, known as a bicameral legislature. Bicameralism is distinguished from unicameralism, in which all members deliberate ...
. The DPD does not have the revising powers of an
upper house An upper house is one of two Legislative chamber, chambers of a bicameralism, bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the lower house. The house formally designated as the upper house is usually smaller and often has more restricted p ...
like the
United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...
. Article 22D restricts the DPD to dealing with bills on "''regional autonomy, the relationship of central and local government, formation, expansion and merger of regions, management of natural resources and other economic resources, and Bills related to the financial balance between the centre and the regions.''" The
International Foundation for Electoral Systems The International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) is an international, non-profit organization, non-profit organisation founded in 1987. Based in Arlington County, Virginia, Arlington, Virginia, United States, the organization assists a ...
conducted a tracking survey in the Indonesian legislative elections in 2004 which showed that not all voters knew how to vote for candidates for the new Regional Representative Council, or were even aware of its existence. The first 128 elected senators of the DPD were sworn in for the first time on 1 October 2004. The DPD is not a true upper house, because the power of the DPD is relatively weak compared to the older chamber, the DPR, notably, it has no direct law-making or the power to veto bills. According to Indonesian constitutional scholar Jimly Asshiddiqie, the relative weakness of the DPD was a result of a compromise in the committee responsible for the constitutional amendment. The reformist faction wanted a strong second chamber in addition to the existing DPR to strengthen
checks and balances The separation of powers principle functionally differentiates several types of state power (usually law-making, adjudication, and execution) and requires these operations of government to be conceptually and institutionally distinguishabl ...
, but the conservative faction opposed this.


Membership

Article 22C of the
Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...
says that all members of the DPD are elected through the same legislative election every five years, along with the members of the House of Representatives. The total number of senators is limited so that it does not exceed one-third of that of DPR. Each of the 38
provinces of Indonesia Provinces are the first-level administrative divisions of Indonesia. They were formerly called first-level provincial regions (), before the Post-Suharto era in Indonesia, Reform era. Provinces have a local government, consisting of a List of ...
elect 4 members to the DPD, for a total of 152. At the inaugural 2004 legislative election, there were 32 provinces resulting in 128 senators, but as new provinces have been created the number of senators has been increased in subsequent elections. The number of senators were 132 starting in
2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...
, 136 starting in
2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...
, and 152 starting in
2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...
. Senators are elected on a non-partisan basis using
single non-transferable voting Single non-transferable vote or SNTV is a multi-winner electoral system in which each voter casts a single vote. Being a semi-proportional variant of first-past-the-post voting, under SNTV small parties, as well as large parties, have a chance t ...
. However, many candidates in the 2004 election had links to the parties represented in the House of Representatives, the ''Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat'' or DPR. The senators elected to the Council represent the interests of their provinces, therefore the DPD can be seen as a reform of the ''utusan daerah'' (regional representatives) of the MPR during the Suharto era, which was appointed to the MPR at the president's discretion.


Powers and structure

The DPD can propose regional bills to the House of Representatives and its senators must be heard on any regional bill proposed by the said House.


Leadership


Miscellaneous

The acronym DPD is a common one in Indonesia. In political parties, it usually stands for ''Dewan Pimpinan Daerah'' (Local Leadership Council) and is seated at each provincial capital. It should not be confused with the legislative body.


References

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Notes


External links


DPD homepage
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Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...
Government of Indonesia People's Consultative Assembly