Chief Justice Anwar Usman with Constitutional Justices Arief Hidayat and Daniel Yusmic P. Foekh entering the courtroom to review Law No. 7 of 2017 on General Elections, Thursday (1/6/2022). Photo by Humas MK/Ifa.

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Friday, January 7, 2022 | 10:25 WIB

JAKARTA, Public Relations—The Constitutional Court (MK) held the preliminary hearing of the judicial review of Law No. 7 of 2017 on General Elections (Election Law) on Thursday, January 6, 2022. The case No. 66/PUU-XIX/2021 was filed by Ferry Joko Yuliantono, represented by Refly Harun and colleagues.

The Petitioner challenges Article 222 of the Election Law, 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.”

The Petitioner bases his legal standing on his status as an Indonesian citizen who is of age (17 years or or above), which according to Article 1 point 34 of the Election Law—which reads, “A Voter is an Indonesian citizen who is at least 17 (seventeen) years of age or is/has been married”—is eligible to vote for the president and vice president.

He believes that the right to vote is a constitutional right derived from the right to participate in government as guaranteed by Article 27, Article 28D paragraph (1), and Article 28D paragraph (3) of the 1945 Constitution.

The Petitioner emphasizes that Article 222 of the Election Law, which sets the presidential threshold at 20% of DPR seats or 25% of national valid votes in the previous election of DPR members, proves to have reduced or restricted his constitutional right to vote in the presidential election and, as such, must be viewed as a constitutional impairment.

He rejects the assumption that presidential threshold is only related to political parties although they are the only ones who can nominate presidential candidate tickets pursuant to Article 6A paragraph (2) of the Third Amendment to the 1945 Constitution.

“In fact, political parties are only vehicles for presidential candidates and political parties candidate for vice president, while the main beneficiaries of the implementation of presidential and vice-presidential elections are citizens, including the Petitioner,” said Refly Harun to the justice panel.

Justices’ Advice

Chief Justice Anwar Usman advised the Petitioner to study the Court’s decisions on presidential threshold as it has ruled on at least 17 cases on the issue. “According to our records, there are 17 Constitutional Court decisions on presidential threshold. Please review this,” he said.

Echoing the chief justice, Constitutional Justice Arief Hidayat said, “Please read [those decisions], so that the Court would have another opinion, whether the principal Petitioner has legal standing or not. Strengthen the elaborations, the arguments, not only that the principal Petitioner is a citizen that has the right to vote.”

Meanwhile, Constitutional Justice Daniel Yusmic P. Foekh highlighted the Petitioner’s position in his political party, whether to explain his capacity as the vice chairman of Gerindra (the Great Movement) Party or a citizen.

Writer        : Nano Tresna Arfana
Editor        : Nur R.
PR            : Muhammad Halim
Translator  : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Translation uploaded on 01/07/2022 19:01 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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