Deputy Chief Justice Saldi Isra (center) with Constitutional Justices Wahiduddin Adams and Suhartoyo entering the courtroom for the material judicial review hearing of Law No. 2 of 2008 on Political Parties, Monday (6/12/2023). Photo by Humas MK/Ifa.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Constitutional Court (MK) held another material judicial review hearing of Law No. 2 of 2011 on the Amendment to Law No. 2 of 2008 on Political Parties on Monday, June 12, 2023. The session was supposed to be a petition revision hearing, but the Petitioners’ legal counsel had sent a text to the Court’s summons officer requesting that the petition be dismissed because documents needed had not arrived from Papua.

“Due to technical issues, several documents from Papua have not arrived, so not a single one of the [Petitioners] could attend the hearing. Through this text, the Petitioners’ legal counsel requested that the case be dismissed. The [panel] will consider this and report to the justice deliberation meeting on this dismissal,” Deputy Chief Justice Saldi Isra (panel chair) said alongside Constitutional Justices Wahiduddin Adams and Suhartoyo.

Also read: Prospective Party Members Challenge Tenure of Party Executives

The case No. 53/PUU-XXI/2023 was filed by Muhammad Helmi Fahrozi, E. Ramos Petege, and Leonardus O. Magai (Petitioners I-III). They challenge Article 2 paragraph (1) letter b of the Political Party Law, which reads, “The founder and the executive members of a political party shall not be the concurrent member of another political party.”

At the preliminary hearing on Tuesday, May 30, legal counsel Aldo Pratama Amry alleged that constitutional rights of the Petitioners, who had turned 17 and wish to be political party members, would be violated because there was no restriction or prohibition for political party chairperson against serving as a chairperson continuously. The Petitioners also argued that they would lose the right to become executive members of political parties since the party’s chairperson would prioritize people close to them. This, they argue, would lead to the emergence of party dynasties.

Based on these reasons, the Petitioners requested that the Court declare Article 2 paragraph (1) letter b of the Political Party Law unconstitutional and not legally binding insofar as not interpreted to mean ‘The executive members of a political party shall serve for 5 (five) years and can only be reelected 1 (one) time for the same position, either consecutively or not, and the founder and the executive members of a political party shall be prohibited from being a member of another political party.

Author       : Utami Argawati
Editor        : Nur R.
PR            : M. 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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