Chief Justice Anwar Usman opening a judicial review hearing of Article 10 paragraph (9) of the Election Law, Monday (5/8/2023). Photo by MKRI/Ifa.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Constitutional Court (MK) held another judicial review hearing of Article 10 paragraph (9) of Law No. 7 of 2017 on General Elections (Election Law) on Monday, May 8, 2023. The petition No. 120/PUU-XX/2022 was filed by advocate Bahrain and the Center for Strategic and Indonesian Public Policy (CSIPP).

This seventh hearing had been scheduled to hear witnesses for the Petitioners, which had been requested to be cancelled.

“At this hearing, we cannot present witnesses and the Petitioners’ evidence is sufficient,” said legal counsel Ikhwan Fahrojih before Chief Justice Anwar Usman and the other constitutional justices in the plenary courtroom.

Before adjourning the session, Chief Justice Anwar Usman informed everyone that the hearing would be the last examination hearing for the case. All parties were welcome to submit their concluding statements no later than seven workdays after the hearing or on Tuesday, May 16, 2023 at 11:00 WIB to the Registrar’s Office.

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The Petitioners challenge Article 10 paragraph (9) of the Election Law, which reads, “The tenure of a chairperson and commissioner of a KPU, Provincial KPU, and Regency/City KPU is for 5 (five) years and they may be reappointed for only once at the same level of the hierarchy.”

They question the shortening of the tenure of provincial and regency/city KPU members in relation to the 2024 simultaneous election. They believe this violates the principle of legality, since those members were inaugurated for a five-year term.

The selection for those members, which overlaps with the election process, potentially disrupts the election process and lead to higher election costs since the state must compensate the dismissed members while still paying for the salaries of current members.

“Based on the KPU RI, the tenures of provincial KPU members in 2023-2024 are different. This variation will lead to many selection batches and selection schedules, thus disturbing the stages of the 2024 Simultaneous Elections. For a good election system, the recruitment of members of the provincial and regency/city KPU should be conducted simultaneously outside of the election stages or pre-election. Therefore, there needs to be a transition period that extends the tenures of the KPU members that expire in 2023 and 2024 until the end of the simultaneous elections in 2024,” legal counsel Ikhwan Fahrojih explained at the preliminary hearing on Monday, December 19, 2022.

In the petitum, the Petitioners requested that the Court declare Article 10 paragraph (9) of Election Law unconstitutional and not legally binding if interpreted as “The members of Provincial and Regency/City KPU whose tenures end in 2023 and 2024 shall have their tenures extended until after the simultaneous elections of 2024.”   

Author       : Sri Pujianti
Editor        : Nur R.
PR            : Muhammad Halim
Translator  : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

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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