Mustafa Kamal Singadirata, one of the Petitioners\' attorneys, delivering the main points to improve the petition of the judicial review of the Election Law, Tuesday (04/12) in the Plenary Courtroom of the Constitutional Court. Photo by Humas MK/Ganie.

The Constitutional Court once again held the judicial review hearing of Law Number 7 of 2017 on General Elections (Election Law) on Tuesday (4/12) in the Panel Courtroom of the Constitutional Court. The case No. 93/PUU-XVI/2018 was petitioned by entrepreneurs Palaloi, Abdul Rasyid, Sitefano Gulo, and Alex as well as university student Melianus Laoli. 

Mustafa Kamal Singadirata, one of the attorneys, conveyed that the implementation of the a quo article would have an impact on the technical implementation of elections of integrity and dignity. Therefore, in the petition revision hearing, Mustafa confirmed that Palaloi (Petitioner I) had served as member of the Thousand Islands Administrative District KPU in 2013-2018 and served as Chairperson of the Thousand Islands Regency Supervisory Committee (Panwas) in 2007. Following the a quo norm, the performance of the 2018 Thousand Islands District/Municipal Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu), which consists of three people, will be restricted in realizing honest, fair, and quality elections according to the indicators of democratic elections in Indonesia. "With the enactment of the a quo article, the constitutional right of Petitioner I to serve as member of the District/Municipal Bawaslu is lost," said Mustafa before the hearing led by Constitutional Justice Saldi Isra, in the presence of Constitutional Justice Suhartoyos and I Dewa Gede Palguna.

Mustafa added that the other Petitioners had also served as members of the election organizing committee in their respective regions. For this reason, in order to guarantee the implementation of good electoral principles as stipulated in Article 22E paragraph (1), the number of District/Municipal Bawaslu members petitioned for the a quo case (5 people) is legally reasonable. 

In the previous session, the Petitioners conveyed that elections of integrity and dignity will not take place optimally considering there are only five organizing members to only three Bawaslu (Elections Supervisory Agency) members in carrying out the elections. The addition of personnel is necessary to balance the personnel or members of the District/Municipal Bawaslu in supervisory in order to achieve democratic elections. In addition, according to Mustafa, in the implementation of the 2019 Elections Bawaslu will have a lot of workload and meet complex issues so there is concern that election-related violations will be on District/Municipal Bawaslu.  Therefore, in the petitum, the Petitioners requested the Court to declare the a quo article along with the elucidation and attachment to the phrase "3 (three) or 5 (five) people" contrary to the 1945 Constitution and not have binding legal force insofar as it is not interpreted as 5 (five) people. (Sri Pujianti/LA/Yuniar Widiastuti)