Constitutional Justice Saldi Isra chairing the panel petition revision hearing of the judicial review of Law No. 7 of 2017 on General Elections, Tuesday (9/14/2021) in the plenary courtroom. Photo by Humas MK/Panji.
Tuesday, September 14, 2021 | 19:14 WIB
JAKARTA, Public Relations—Two state civil apparatuses (ASNs) of the Jakarta Provincial Government and the Ministry of Home Affairs, Siti Warsilah and Evarini Uswatun Khasanah, revised the material judicial review petition on the mandatory resignation of ASNs who apply as election organizers in Law No. 7 of 2017 on General Elections. In the petition No. 39/PUU-XIX/2021 they challenge Article 21 letter j and Article 117 letter j of the Election Law.
At the hearing chaired by Constitutional Justice Saldi Isra, counsel Sri Harini conveyed the revisions, which were made following the justices’ advice, including on the Petitioners’ legal standing and the arguments of the petition.
“Why do the Petitioners intend for the articles to be reviewed materially? Because there is no basic explanation to the provision on why they have to resign from their positions when registering [in the election]. Will it hinder their duties as ASNs or will it affect the selection team and make them partial? There is no explanation for it, so we added it as a reason why the articles harm the Petitioners. It will also automatically apply to those in [BUMN (SOEs)] or [BUMD (region-owned enterprises)]. When registering [in the election], they will be hindered by these articles, so it can apply mutatis mutandis,” she explained.
Sri also said that in the provisional petitum, the Petitioners requested that the Court prioritize requested that the Court prioritize their petition before the KPU/Bawaslu commissioner election of 2022-2027 starts in October 2021 and declare the phrase “having resigned from any positions in politics, governance, BUMN, and/or BUMD upon registering as a candidate” in Article 21 letter j and Article 117 letter j of the Election Law and the Supplement to the State Gazette No. 6109 unconstitutional and not legally binding insofar as not interpreted as “having resigned from any positions in in politics, governance, BUMN, and/or BUMD after being elected.”
Also read: Provision on ASN Resignation Upon Registering as Election Organizers Challenged
The Petitioners argue that the phrase “having resigned from any political positions, positions in governance, and/or state/region-owned enterprises upon registering as a candidate” in Article 21 letter j and Article 117 letter j of the Election Law is contrary to Article 28D paragraph (1) of the 1945 Constitution. They believe the interpretation of those articles—that legal subjects who run as members of the central/ provincial/regency/city General Elections Commission (KPU) and the central/ provincial/regency/city Elections Supervisory Body (Bawaslu), subdistrict/village Elections Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu), as well as polling stations (TPS) Supervisory Committee (Panwas) must resign from their government offices upon registering—has constitutionally harmed or at least reduced their constitutional rights.
They argue that ASNs must be able to resign from their offices without losing their ASN status if they intend to occupy offices through election (House of Representatives/DPR, Regional Representatives Council/DPD, Regional Legislative Council/DPRD, and regional head election/pilkada). The resignation should apply not upon registration but after they undergo verification process until they are declared candidates. Therefore, the a quo provision is harmful as the Petitioners as ASNs must lose their offices as supervisory officials in the selection of KPU members, when there is no guarantee that they will be selected, due to fear of potential abuse of office and authority in the election, which hinders the exercise of their duty and office.
Writer : Utami Argawati
Editor : Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR : Raisa Ayuditha
Translator : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)
Translation uploaded on 9/15/2021 08:23 WIB
Disclaimer: The original version of the news is in Indonesian. In case of any differences between the English and the Indonesian versions, the Indonesian version will prevail.
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