Constitutional Justices Enny Nurbaningsih and Arief Hidayat at the ruling hearing of the judicial review of the Election Law, Thursday (9/29/2022). Photo by MKRI/Ifa.

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Thursday, September 29, 2022 | 19:36 WIB

JAKARTA—The Constitutional Court (MK) asserted that Article 222 of Law No. 7 of 2017 on General Elections (Election Law) on the presidential threshold was the legislature’s open legal policy, in its legal considerations for Decision No. 73/PUU-XX/2022 read out by Constitutional Justice Enny Nurbaningsih at a ruling hearing on Thursday, September 29, 2022. The petition 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).

Justice Enny stated that the difference between the Petitioners’ argument and that of similar petitions was that there had to be more proportional, rational, and implementable limits to the provision to avoid harming the Petitioners’ constitutional rights. To the Court asserted that it was not within its jurisdiction to rule on the case and change the threshold figure. The Petitioners, she added, also emphasized in their petition that the provision was an open policy, making it the authority of the legislatures, i.e. the House of Representatives (DPR) and the president.

The Petitioners’ requested that the Court restrict the implementation of open legal policy through an interval range of the threshold, in order to balance the presidential system and democracy/people’s sovereignty, and determining the interval range of threshold figure on scientific study of the calculation of the effective numbers of parliamentary parties (ENPP). However, the Court asserted it was not within its jurisdiction.

“Therefore, according to the Court, the Petitioners’ arguments were legally in entirety and the arguments and other matters were not considered further because they were irrelevant,” Justice Enny explained at the ruling hearing in the plenary courtroom, which the litigants attended virtually.

As a result, in Decision No. 73/PUU-XX/2022, the Court rejected the petition. “The [Court] adjudicated, rejects the Petitioners’ petition in its entirety,” said Chief Justice Anwar Usman. 

Also read:

PKS to Challenge 20 Percent Presidential Threshold

PKS Requests Presidential Threshold Be Set at 7-9 Percent

PKS Affirms Legal Standing in Case on Presidential Threshold

Concurring Opinions

Constitutional Justices Suhartoyo and Saldi Isra expressed their concurring opinions on the petition. Justice Suhartoyo insisted that, following past decisions on the presidential threshold, implementing percentage would not be prudent.

Meanwhile, Justice Saldi Isra was of the opinion that the presidential threshold was not the legislature’s open legal policy, as it was constitutionally determined explicitly in Article 6A paragraph (2) of the 1945 Constitution: “A pair of the President and Vice President shall be recommended by political parties or combination of political parties being the participants of general election before the general election.” Therefore, the legislature cannot veer off by adding a requirement that the 1945 Constitution does not mention.

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

Translation uploaded on 10/17/2022 09:42 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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