The petition revision hearing for the judicial review of the Election Law for the Prosperous Justice Party, Monday (8/8/2022). Photo by Humas MK/Ilham W. M.

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Monday, August 8, 2022 | 15:37 WIB

JAKARTA—The Constitutional Court (MK) held another hearing for the judicial review of Law No. 7 of 2017 on General Elections (Election Law) on Monday, August 8, 2022. This second hearing had been scheduled to hear the revisions to the petition by the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS). Legal counsel Zainudin Paru conveyed five revisions.

First, relating the legal standing of Petitioner I, president Ahmad Syaikhu and secretary-general Aboe Bakar. They included the party’s statute/bylaw to assert their status as a political party. They also elaborated the special legal standing that House of Representatives (DPR) members have (in this case the PKS) despite having been involved in creating the a quo Law.

Petitioner II also provided the presidential ticket registration schedule, which will start in October 19, 2023. This means not only party has registered their candidates. Zainudin argued that Petitioner II had legal standing following a Constitutional Court decision.

“The Petitioners elaborated the reason for the petition that differs from those in previous petitions on presidential threshold. We also have included evidence and literature on the effective numbers of parliamentary parties (FNPP) and will present experts on election to [explain] the determination of the presidential threshold, which not only served to strengthen the presidential system but also party politics in Indonesia,”  Zainudin said before Constitutional Justices Arief Hidayat (panel chair), Saldi Isra, and Enny Nurbaningsih.

Also read:

PKS to Challenge 20 Percent Presidential Threshold

PKS Requests Presidential Threshold Be Set at 7-9 Percent

The petition No. 73/PUU-XX/2022 on the judicial review of Article 222 of Law No. 7 of 2017 on General Elections (Election Law) was filed by the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS)’s president Ahmad Syaikhu and secretary-general Aboe Bakar (Petitioner I), and advisory council chairman Salim Segaf Aljufri (Petitioner II). They argued that the threshold of 20% of DPR (House of Representatives) seats or 25% of valid national votes as referred to in the article had kept them from nominating presidential ticket candidates.

The article 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 preliminary hearing on Tuesday, July 26, 2022, the Petitioners’ legal counsel Zainudin Paru said, based on Article 6A paragraph (2) of the 1945 Constitution, the PKS had a constitutional right to nominate presidential ticket candidates. However, due to the high threshold, they could potentially lose that right, given that they had 7.1% of seats in the House and 6.79% of valid national votes in the 2014 Election as well as 8.21% of seats in the House and 8.7% of valid national votes in the 2019 Election.

He explained that Petitioner II had been endorsed by the party as a presidential candidate. If the presidential threshold set in Article 222 of the Election Law had not been too high, the impairment of the political right to be candidate, which is regulated in Article 27 paragraph (1) and Article 28D paragraph (3) of the 1945 Constitution, that Petitioner II experienced would not occur.

In its petitum, the PKS requested that the Court declare Article 222 of the Election Law along the phrase “… 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” unconstitutional and not legally binding if the threshold go over an interval of 7% to 9% of DPR seats.

Writer        : Sri Pujianti
Editor        : Nur R.
PR            : Tiara Agustina
Translator  : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Translation uploaded on 8/9/2022 08:10 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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