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Virtual panel petition revision hearing of the judicial review of the Election Law, Monday (5/10) in the Plenary Courtroom of the Constitutional Court. Photo by Humas MK/Gani.

JAKARTA, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—The Constitutional Court (MK) held another judicial review hearing of Law No. 7 of 2017 on General Elections virtually on Monday, October 5, 2020 in the Plenary Courtroom. At the hearing presided over by Chief Justice Anwar Usman, attorney Salman Darwis said the Petitioner had revised the legal standing, the subject matters, and the petitum.

Also read: Running for President, Rizal Ramli Challenges Presidential Threshold 

He explained that the Petitioner I’s legal standing was stressed in points 11 to 18. The Petitioner’s constitutional impairment was explained by elaborating on a Constitutional Court decision regarding Article 222 of Law No. 7 of 2017.

“The Petitioners also elaborate on the revision, which in the a quo petition they focused on the argument ‘Post factum (inconcreto) [after the fact], the 2019 presidential election led to the loss of constitutional rights of the Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI), the United Indonesia Party (Perindo), the Berkarya Party, and the Change Movement Party of Indonesia (Garuda) in nominating a presidential ticket. In addition, the enactment of the presidential threshold has polarized the public,” he said.

Salman also explained, “We added the touchstones, namely Article 6A paragraph (2), Article 6A paragraph (3), Article 6A paragraph (4), Article 6A paragraph (5), Article 22E paragraph (1), Article 28C paragraph (2), Article 28D paragraph (1), Article 28D paragraph (3), Article 28J paragraph (1), and Article 28J paragraph (2). [The Petitioners] also declared Article 222 to be in violation of Article 6 paragraph (2) and Article 6 paragraph (5) of the 1945 Constitution.”

Petitioners of case No. 74/PUU-XVIII/2020 Rizal Ramli and Abdulrachim Kresno challenge Article 222, which reads, “A presidential candidate ticket shall be nominated by a political party (or a coalition thereof) contesting in an election that has managed to win at least 20% (twenty percent) of DPR seats or 25% (twenty-five percent) of national valid votes in the previous election of members of the DPR.” They stated that they would like to run as president in the 2024 elections but was restricted by said article.

Rizal Ramli said the article has raised the candidacy buying phenomenon. He revealed that in the 2009 presidential election, he was courted by several political parties to run for president at the cost of 1.5 trillion rupiahs. He said the 20 percent presidential threshold only benefits the wealthy. Therefore, they requested that the Constitutional Court change its stance in its previous decisions and declare Article 222 of the Election Law unconstitutional and not legally binding.

Writer: Utami Argawati
Editor: Lulu Anjarsari
PR: Andhini S. F.
Translator: Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Translation uploaded on 10/06/2020 20:21 WIB

Disclaimer: The original version of the news is in Indonesian. In case of any differences between the English and the Indonesian version, the Indonesian version will prevail.

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