Petitioner Gugum Ridho Putra (right) with his legal counsels at the panel preliminary hearing of Law No. 7 of 2017 on General Elections, Wednesday (10/11/2023). Photo by MKRI/Ifa.
JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Constitutional Court held a preliminary hearing for the material judicial review of Law No. 7 of 2017 on General Elections (Election Law) on Wednesday, October 11, 2023 in the plenary courtroom. The case No. 129/PUU-XXI/2023 was filed by advocate Gugum Ridho Putra.
The Petitioner challenges Article 222 of the Election Law, which 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.”
The panel on-site hearing was presided over by Deputy Chief Justice Saldi Isra (chair) and Constitutional Justices Manahan M.P. Sitompul and Wahiduddin Adams. In his petitum, the Petitioner revealed his reason for challenging Article 222 against Article 1 paragraph (2); Article 6A paragraphs (1), (2), (3), (4), and (5); and Article 28D paragraph (1) of the 1945 Constitution. “The provision of Article 222 has caused legal uncertainty because it has the potential to create a super-dominant coalition that can lock the presidential election to only two candidate pairs or a single candidate pair,” he explained.
The Petitioner revealed that the Election Law has regulated the requirements that must be met by candidates in the presidential and vice-presidential election. It has also regulated the nomination requirements that apply to parties or coalitions of parties that will endorse presidential and vice-presidential candidates. Article 222 of the Election Law determines the threshold to be either DPR (House of Representatives) seats or valid votes. Based on this provision, he added, every party or coalition of parties that wants to endorse a presidential ticket must have 20% of DPR seats or have acquired 25% of votes in the previous legislative election. Political parties form coalitions only to fulfill this minimum requirement for the nomination of president and vice president.
“Article 222 of the Election Law only regulates the lower threshold for [presidential] nomination without regulating the upper limit, which allows parties to form coalition and gathering as many seats and votes as possible without limit. As a result, it could potentially cause two conditions: a coalition of political parties that potentially forms a super-dominant coalition and leaves minority coalitions of smaller parties, so the presidential election is only joined by two pairs of candidates; or the presidential and vice-presidential election could be joined by only a single candidate pair or presidential ticket if one of the two candidate pairs, especially the minority coalition, is disqualified for not meeting the KPU requirements,” the Petitioner explained.
Moreover, the Petitioner also emphasized that the enforcement of Article 222 of the Election Law, which does not regulate restriction on the presidential ticket nomination, is contrary to the principle of constitutionalism or limitation of power. This is because the lack of a limit means that a party coalition can collect as many seats and votes as possible without any restrictions. The greater the number of seats or votes collected, the greater the coalition’s potential power to form a super-dominant coalition, so there is higher potential of abuse.
For this reason, in his petitum, the Petitioner requests the Court to declare Article 222 of the Election Law unconstitutional and not legally binding if it is not interpreted to mean “A presidential candidate ticket nominated by a coalition of political parties shall not exceed 40% (forty percent) of DPR seats or 50% (fifty percent) of national valid votes in the previous election of members of the DPR.”
Strengthen Legal Standing
In response to the petition, Constitutional Justice Manahan M. P. Sitompul asked the Petitioner to strengthen his legal standing. “Please strengthen the legal standing. Has the Petitioner ever participated in an election or is the Petitioner [eligible to vote]? If he has, is [the impairment] factual or actual? Legal standing is an issue; the Constitutional Court already decided that those who have the right to challenge Article 222 should have already participated in the election and those who [can] challenge it is only political parties participating in the election. It needs to be elaborated, if perhaps the legal standing [in this case] is warranted for different reasons. Try to elaborate the legal standing by explaining the contents of the decision,” he said.
Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Justice Saldi Isra said the Petitioner’s constitutional loss was only potential, not factual, so he asked him to be careful.
“So be careful [in explaining] that the Petitioner’s constitutional rights could potentially be harmed. Potentially, not yet factually. That is what must be considered. In addition, the Petitioner’s potential loss in the petition is related to millions of other [voters]. That must be considered in the legal standing,” he advised.
He added that the background of the petition should be supplemented with the connection between the norm being challenged and the touchstones. “Therefore, please also explain why in Article 222, if the threshold is not implemented, it will contradict Article 1 paragraph (2), Article 6A paragraphs (1), (2) and (3), and also Article 28D paragraph (1) [of the 1945 Constitution}. This was explained as one point but the contradiction is not clear,” he said.
Before concluding the hearing, Deputy Chief Justice Saldi informed the Petitioner that he would have 14 workdays to revise the petition and to submit it to the Registrar’s Office no later than October 24, 2023. (*)
Author : Utami Argawati
Editor : Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR : Raisa Ayuditha
Translator : Tahlitha Laela/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.
Wednesday, October 11, 2023 | 21:38 WIB 181