Petition revision hearing for case No. 5/PUU-XX/2022 on the judicial review of Law No. 7 of 2017 on General Elections, Thursday (2/3/2022). Photo by Humas MK/BPE.

---

Thursday, February 3, 2022 | 16:25 WIB

JAKARTA, Public Relations—The Constitutional Court (MK) held another material judicial review hearing on the provision on presidential threshold in Article 222 of Law No. 7 of 2017 on General Elections (Election Law). The second hearing for case No. 5/PUU-XX/2022 took place on Thursday, February 3, 2022.

Before Constitutional Justices Arief Hidayat (panel chair), Saldi Isra, and Manahan M. P. Sitompul, the Petitioner conveyed the revisions following the justices’ advice at the preliminary hearing. The legal standing had been revised with reference to 15 Constitutional Court decisions. “We have completed the legal standing with 15 Constitutional Court decisions and the requirements for the establishment of a political party as well as those for election contestants,” he said while appearing before the Court without counsel.

The Petitioner believes that the 20% presidential threshold is highly restrictive when there is currently only nine parties—7 coalition parties and 2 opposition parties.

“The two [opposition parties] are not enough [to reach] 20%. So, if this [provision] is not changed, it would be different from the previous [election]. We didn’t use to think that political parties can group like this. Now, what the ruling political parties want happens because they control 82% [of the parties]. So, if the rules for the 2024 Election still require 20%, to nominate presidential and vice presidential [candidates], would be hesitant to run again. Not to mention, regarding this legal standing issue, I’m very disadvantaged,” he said.

Also read: Provision on Presidential Threshold Challenged Once Again

At the preliminary hearing, Petitioner Lieus Sungkharisma argued that as an individual citizen he had the right to vote in the presidential elections. He also asserted that that Article 222 of the Election Law, which requires that the presidential candidate tickets are nominated by a political party (or a coalition thereof) that has won at least 20% of DPR (House of Representatives) seats or 25% of national valid votes, was in violation of Article 6 paragraph (2) of the 1945 Constitution.

He believes the presidential threshold does not meet those requirements as Article 6A paragraph (2) of the 1945 Constitution has regulated the requirements. The Petitioner believes that the article has, in a conceptual normative construction, declared the right to vote and right to be candidate as citizens’ constitutional rights. As such, he added, the unconstitutionality of Article 222 of the Election Law correlates with the violation of his constitutional right to have as many options of presidential candidate tickets in the 2024 election. Therefore, in the petitum, the Petitioner requested that the Court grant his petition and declare Article 222 of the Election Law unconstitutional and not legally binding.

Writer        : Utami Argawati
Editor        : Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR            : Raisa Ayudhita
Translator  : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Translation uploaded on 2/3/2022 17:13 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.

---