Constitutional Justice Arief Hidayat chairing the judicial review hearing of Law No. 7 of 2017 on General Elections, Monday (7/4/2022). Photo by Humas MK/Ifa.

---

Monday, July 4, 2022 | 16:14 WIB

JAKARTA, Public Relations—The Constitutional Court (MK) held another judicial review hearing of Law No. 7 of 2017 on General Elections (Election Law) to hear the revisions to the petition on Monday, July 4, 2022. The case No. 64/PUU-XX/2022 was filed by the Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI), represented by its chairman Giring Ganesha Djumaryo and secretary-general Dea Tunggaesti.

At the hearing presided over by Constitutional Justices Arief Hidayat, Manahan M. P. Sitompul, and Enny Nurbaningsih, legal counsel Francine Eustacia conveyed the revisions to the object of the petition as well as the petitum, which had been added with Article 173 paragraph (1) of the Election Law as amended by the Constitutional Court Decision No. 55/PUU-XVIII/2020. She also explained the authority of the chairman and secretary-general of the PSI for the case.

“The authority of the chairman and secretary-general to represent the Petitioner is also recognized in previous Constitutional Court decisions and is in line with Article 1 point (2) of the KPU Regulation, which states that the leadership of a political party comprises the chairman and secretary-general of the political party pursuant to their ranks or in accordance with the statute/bylaw,” she stressed.

She also emphasized that the Petitioner’s petition differed from previous petitions on the same article, making it not ne bis in idem. The Petitioner had also added evidence P-35 through P-100 and completed other evidence it had previously submitted.

Also read: PSI Challenges Discrimination during Party Verification

At the preliminary hearing on Monday, June 20, 2022, the Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI) conveyed its challenge against Article 173 paragraph (1) of the Election Law, which reads, “A Political Party Contesting in an Election is a political party established as an election contestant following a verification process by the KPU.” It believes the article to be in violation of Article 27 paragraph (1), Article 28D paragraphs (1) and (3), and Article 28I paragraph (2) of the 1945 Constitution.

Legal counsel Rian Ernest said at the remote hearing that during the verification of the political parties contesting in the election, the KPU (General Elections Commission) will refer to Article 173 paragraph (2) of the Election Law, which requires that the party has management at the provincial up to subdistrict levels; offices for its management at the provincial and regency/city levels; and a 30% women representation at the central management. For parties sitting in the parliament, this requirement is only checked administratively through necessary documents. Meanwhile, for those not sitting in the parliament, administrative verification is followed by factual verification. As such, Rian said, there has been discrimination against non-parliamentary political parties, which is against Article 28I paragraph (2) of the 1945 Constitution.

The PSI asserted that the Constitutional Court Decision No. 55/PUU-XVIII/2020 had become a basis for the different treatment. Factual verification requires a vast budget, which it compared to the 2020 Regional Election (Pilkada). In order to maintain the democracy, the state organized the 2020 Pilkada without any such different treatment despite it needing vast budgets for the mitigation of COVID-19. On that basis, the PSI believed that factual verification for all political parties would not put burdens on the state finances.

The party requested that the Court declare Article 173 paragraph (1) of the Election Law unconstitutional and not legally binding insofar as not interpreted as “All political parties, that is, (i) political parties that have passed verification for the 2019 Election and have passed/met the requirement of parliamentary threshold in the 2019 Election; (ii) political parties have passed verification for the 2019 Election and have not passed/met the requirement of parliamentary threshold in the 2019 Election; and new political parties shall have to pass administrative and factual verification by the KPU General Elections Commission.” 

Writer        : Utami Argawati
Editor        : Nur R.
PR            : Tiara Agustina
Translator  : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Translation uploaded on 7/5/2022 08:05 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.

---