Principal Petitioner Aristides Verissimo de Sousa Mota delivering the revision points of the petition in the judicial review hearing of Law No. 7 of 2017 on the General Elections, Tuesday (16/6) in the Courtroom of the Constitutional Court. Photo by Humas MK/Ifa.

JAKARTA, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—The judicial review hearing of Law No. 7 of 2017 on the General Elections was held once again by the Constitutional Court (MK) on Tuesday (16/6/2020) to revise the petition. Petitioner Aristides Verissimo de Sousa Mota revised the Constitutional Court’s authorities through the petitum.

De Sousa Mota confirmed that he had removed the article related to vote counting, that is, Article 415 paragraph (1), Article 415 paragraph (2), Article 415 paragraph (3), and Article 420. In the petitum, he requested that the Court declare the provisions of Article 168 paragraph (2), Article 187 paragraph (2), Article 189 paragraph (2), Article 192 paragraph (3), and Article 197 of the Law No. 7 of 2017 concerning General Elections contradictory with the fourth paragraph of the Preamble to the 1945 Constitution, Article 28G paragraph (1), Article 28H paragraph (1), and Article 28I paragraph (4) of the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia.

The Petitioner had previously argued that the Election Law was contrary to Article 1 paragraph (2), Article 6A paragraph (1), Article 18 paragraph (3), Article 19 paragraph (1), and Article 22C of the 1945 Constitution. Without attorney in the hearing, de Sousa Mota stated that the 2019 simultaneous elections had led to a number of fatalities due to fatigue. The complex method to elect candidates for legislative members (DPR RI, Provincial DPRD, and regency/city DPRD) was implemented with an open proportional system and the election of DPD members was carried out with a multi-representative district system.

"By using such a complicated electoral system, the principles of effective and efficient election as regulated in Article 3 letters j and k of Law Number 7 of 2017 were not implemented," he said before the hearing presided over by Constitutional Justice Enny Nurbaningsih along with Constitutional Justices Arief Hidayat and Manahan M. P. Sitompul. 

However, de Sousa Mota believes the election system for DPD candidates was correct because it used the people’s representative district system as mandated by Article 168 paragraph (2). However, the number of candidates was not limited so people did not know who they would vote for and after voting the they did not remember who they voted for. 

"The 2019 general elections caused casualties. The Petitioner hopes that the Constitutional Court Justices make arrangements in accordance with the Petitioner’s [request] to the electoral system so that the implementation of the general elections in 2024 onwards will no longer cause fatalities," he said . 

He hopes the number of DPD candidates for each electoral district (dapil) will be limited to 10 people. Thus, for each province the number of DPD candidates will be no more than 40 people. If a candidate/member of the DPR, the Provincial DPRD, and the Regency/City DPRD dies, the central executive board (DPP) of the winning party in the district has the right to replace it with a new member. So, in the petitum the Petitioner requested that the Court accept and grant the entire judicial review petition. (Utami/Halim/LA)

Translated by: Yuniar Widiastuti

Translation uploaded on 06/16/2020