The Constitutional Court held judicial review on Law Number 32 of 2004 regarding the Regional Government against the 1945 Constitution, on Monday April 23, 2007 at 10.00 Western Indonesia Time at the courtroom of the Constitutional Court, at Jalan Medan Merdeka Barat No. 7, Central Jakarta. This was the third hearing with an agenda of hearing the testimony of the Government.

This case Number 5/PUU-V/2007 is filed by a Member of the Regional People’s Legislative Assembly from Lombok, Lalu Ranggalawe, with his Attorneys-In-Fact Suriahadi, S.H., and Edy Gunawan, S.H. In his petitum, the Petitioner petitions the Panel of the Constitutional Court Justices to grant the petition of the Petitioner and to declare that Article 56 paragraph (2), Article 59 paragraph (1), paragraph (2), paragraph (3), paragraph (4), paragraph (5) sub-paragraph a, paragraph (5) sub-paragraph c, paragraph (6) and Article 60 paragraph (2), paragraph (3), paragraph (4) and paragraph (5) are contradictory to the fourth paragraph of the Preamble of the 1945 Constitution fourth paragraph, Article 18 paragraph (4), Article 27 paragraph (1), Article 28D paragraphs (1) and (3), and Article 28I paragraph (2) of the 1945 Constitution and do not have binding legal effect.

According to the Petitioner, by the application of this Regional Government Law there will be no opportunity and no room for independent candidates who are not affiliated to political party. In addition, the Petitioner is of the opinion that thus far, Regional Head Election has not been actually representing public interests in general. As an example, the Petitioner pointed out the winning of an independent candidate in the Local Election in Nangroe Aceh Darussalam proved that people really need independence and they no longer trust political parties.

In this hearing, the Government which was represented by Ramli Hutabarat, an Expert Staff of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, read the Opening Statement of the Government on the petition. The Government is of the opinion that the conditionally constitutional requirements and specific constitutional impairment as an entry point for the Petitioner in this petition were not met or proved. In relation to the Local Election in Nangroe Aceh Darussalam (NAD), which allowed independent candidates, in addition to candidates nominated by political parties or groups of political parties, it was implemented in the context of supplementing the special characteristics of NAD in relation to one of the unique historical characteristics of the struggle of Aceh people. The government is also of the opinion that the petition for judicial review on law a quo cannot be filed again.

Prior to adjourning the court hearing, the Panel of Justices requested the Attorneys-In-Fact of the Petitioner to present Experts in the next Plenary Meeting. (Prana Patrayoga Adiputra)