Counsel Herman Kadir conveying the revisions to the petition virtually at the judicial review hearing of Law No. 7 of 2017 on General Elections, Monday (3/28/2022). Photo by Humas MK/Ifa.

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Thursday, March 28, 2022 | 16:00 WIB

JAKARTA, Public Relations—The Constitutional Court (MK) held another hearing for the judicial review of  Law No. 7 of 2017 on General Elections (Election Law). The petition for case No. 20/PUU-XX/2022 was filed by Adang Suhardja, Marwan Batubara, Ali Ridhok, and Bennie Akbar Fatah. The petition revision hearing took place on Monday, March 28, 2022.

At the hearing, counsel Herman Kadir conveyed the revision on the Petitioners’ legal standing and more detailed elaboration of the Petitioners’ constitutional impairment.

Also read: Provision on Presidential Threshold Challenged Once More

At the preliminary hearing on Monday, March 14, 2022, the Petitioners challenged 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.”

At the hearing, counsel Herman Kadir said on behalf of the Petitioners that the threshold set by Article 222 of the Election Law was in violation of Article 6 paragraph (2), which reads, “The requirements of being the President and Vice President shall be further stipulated by virtue of law.”

“Interpreted systematically and grammatically, the presidential-vice presidential candidacy requirement should have referred to Article 6 of the 1945 Constitution, especially Article 6 paragraph (2),” he said.

In addition, Herman added, it would not be accurate to call the presidential threshold an open legal policy. It is a closed legal policy because the 1945 Constitution has determined the restrictions and requirements for the candidacy.

He further stressed that in formulating the 20 percent seat or 25 percent votes requirement based on the previous election, the legislatures did not base it on the fulfillment of the people’s right to vote or to get as many choices of presidential candidates.

The Petitioners believe that in formulating the presidential threshold, the legislatures should not have used the voting mechanism but should have involved all elements of society (especially those disagreeing with the presidential threshold) and accommodate the minority within the parliament proportionally. 

Writer        : Utami Argawati
Editor        : Nur R.
PR            : Muhammad Halim
Translator  : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Translation uploaded on 3/29/2022 09:26 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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