Constitutional Justice Daniel Yusmic P. Foekh reading out the Court’s legal considerations at the ruling hearing of the judicial review of Law No. 7 of 2017 on General Elections, Thursday (2/24/2022). Photo by Humas MK/Ifa.

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Friday, February 25, 2022 | 10:04 WIB

JAKARTA, Public Relations—The Constitutional Court (MK) ruled to dismiss another judicial review petition on Article 222 of Law No. 7 of 2017 on General Elections (Election Law) relating to the provision on presidential threshold on Thursday, February 24, 2022 in the plenary courtroom. The petition was filed by three Regional Representatives Council (DPD) members—Tamsil Linrung, Fahira Idris, and Edwin Pratama Putra revised.

Article 222 of the Election Law, 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.”

In the Decision for case No. 6/PUU-XX/2022, the Court referred to its legal considerations for case No. 66/PUU-XIX/2021. The Court stressed that that as individual citizens with the right to vote, the Petitioners had been aware that their voting results from the 2019 legislative election would be used as part of the presidential threshold for the 2024 Elections, which can only be proposed by political parties and party coalitions. Therefore, the Court asserted, they had not suffered constitutional impairment.

The Court believed the number of presidential tickets contesting in the election did not correlate with Article 222 of Law No. 7 of 2017 because it did not limit the number of eligible presidential tickets. In addition, there was no causal relationship between the a quo norm and the Petitioner’s constitutional right as a voter in the elections.

The Court also did not find any constitutional impairment in the part of the Petitioners as DPD members and any causal relations between the norm and the Petitioners’ duties and authorities in accepting the local community’s aspirations, as the enactment of Article 222 of the Election Law did not reduce the opportunity of the best candidates in the regions to run for presidential candidate tickets as long as they met the requirements and were endorsed by political parties or party coalitions.

The Petitioners also did not qualify as individual citizens who had the right to be elected in order to be considered to have had constitutional impairment due to the enactment of Article 222 of the Election Law, because they had not provided any evidence in relation to endorsement by political parties and party coalitions as a presidential ticket candidate not did they file the petition alongside the endorsing political parties.

“Based on the abovementioned legal considerations, the Court believes the Petitioners did not have legal standing to file the a quo petition,” said Constitutional Justice Daniel Yusmic P. Foekh reading out the Court’s legal considerations.

Also read:

Three DPD Members Challenge Presidential Threshold

DPD Members Revise Petition on Presidential Threshold 

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

Translation uploaded on 2/25/2022 13:39 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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