Hamdan Zoelva and Arief Hidayat elected as Chief Justice and Deputy Chief Justice of the Constitutional Courtin a plenary session of the Constitutional Court, Friday, 1/11/2013.

Hamdan Zoelva was elected as Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court after going through two rounds of elections, in the first round, Hamdan Zoelva got 4 votes, Constitutional Justice Arief Hidayat got 3 votes, and Constitutional Court Justice Ahmad Fadlil Sumadiget one vote, so no single gain more of the Constitutional Court half of the judges of the Constitution, the election continued by including two constitutional judges who won the most votes.

In the second round, Hamdan Zoelva won 5 votes, while Arief Hidayat get 3 votes, by a vote HamdanZoelva was then elected as Chief Justice from 2013 to 2016 period.

While the election of the Deputy Chief Justice, Arief Hidayat was elected as Deputy Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court after passing three times round election. In the first round judge Arief Hidayat and Patrialis Akbar both get 3 votes, while Fadlil Sumadi won two votes. Since none of the constitutional judges won more votes than half of the judges of the constitution, the election was resumed on lap two and was followed by two judges of the Constitution that won the most votes.

In the second round, Arief Hidayat won 4 votes; next Patrialis Akbar won 3 votes, and one abstention. Because in between the two candidates that no one has won more than half the vote, the election was resumed on lap three. In the third round, Arief Hidayat got 5 votes while Patrialis Akbar won 3 votes, thus Arief Hidayat was elected as Deputy Chief Justice from 2013 to 2016 period. Appropriate Court of Law, both Hamdan Zoelva and Arief Hidayat will serve for 2 years and a half.

Before the election of Chief Justice and Deputy Chief Justice is done, each letter of the alphabet based on the Constitutional Court his name convey his message to anyone who will be elected as Chief Justice and Deputy Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court.

Independence of judges in deciding the case is something inherent and very important for the judge and the court in making the decision of an impartial and fair to everyone. But are obsessed with independence is something that is very dangerous, because it is independence of judges should be bound and controlled by the integrity and professionalism. "The two things that could curb freedom can be a tyranny. It was not only judges, but also employees as an integral part of the Court. This time we tested to restore the dignity of the Court," said Hamdan. (Ilham)