Perludem’s legal counsel Fadli Ramadanil conveying the petition revisions at the judicial review hearing of Law No. 7 of 2017 on General Elections, Tuesday (10/17/2023). Photo by MKRI/Ifa.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Constitutional Court (MK) held another judicial review hearing on parliamentary threshold for the seat allocation of members of the House of Representatives (DPR) as regulated in Law No. 7 of 2017 on General Elections (Election Law) on Tuesday, October 17, 2023. The case No. 116/PUU-XXI/2023 was filed by the Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem), who questions the phrase “at least 4% (four percent) of the total national number of valid votes” in Article 414 paragraph (1) of the Election Law, which reads, “A political party contesting in a legislative election must reach the electoral threshold, which is 4% (four percent) of the national number of valid votes, in order to be included in the seat allocation for DPR members.”

Before the panel, legal counsel Fadli Ramadanil conveying the petition revisions following the justices’ advice at the previous hearing. “Focusing on the request to annul the staggered threshold at all legislative election levels. Meanwhile, in this petition, we do not request the annulment of the parliamentary threshold, but a formulation of the parliamentary threshold with an approach that ensures no voters’ votes are wasted in a high number and ensures that the parliamentary threshold be based on clear, verifiable academic foundation,” he explained.

He also said that the Petitioner had conducted a study on a transparent formula of the parliamentary threshold that is in line with the electoral principles of honesty and fairness as per Article 22E of the 1945 Constitution. “[The Petitioner] did a study in 2015 on the civil community’s proposal on the election codification to promote the drafting of the electoral legal framework, which then became this Law,” he said.

Also read: Perludem Challenges Parliamentary Threshold

At the preliminary hearing, the Petitioner argued that the parliamentary threshold is one of the important variables of the electoral system that will have a direct impact on the conversion of votes into seats. They asserted that the provision of the parliamentary threshold should be associated with Article 168 paragraph (2) of the Election Law, which stipulates that elections to elect members of the House, both at the provincial and regency/city levels, shall be conducted with the open-list proportional system.

In the petition, the Petitioner mentions that it is confirmed legislative elections in Indonesia use the proportional system, but the election results show disproportionate results because the percentages of votes obtained by political parties are not in line with those of parliament seats. This means that there are fundamental problems that must be resolved in the proportional election system in Indonesia. The issue impacts the people’s sovereignty as the main foundation of elections as well as the fulfillment of the principle of honest and fair elections as set forth in Article 22E paragraph (1) of the 1945 Constitution and legal certainty in an election regulation as stipulated in Article 28D paragraph (1) of the 1945 Constitution, and the principle of the rule of law in Article 1 paragraph (3) of the 1945 Constitution.

The Petitioner believes one of the things that determines whether the election results are proportional or not is the parliamentary threshold, which is one of the variables of the electoral system. Therefore, in the provisional petitum, the Petitioner requests that the Constitutional Court prioritize the review of Article 411 paragraph (1) of the Election Law so that the parliamentary threshold be implemented to the results of the 2024 Election using rational calculations while allowing the Petitioner to prove their case.

Meanwhile, relating to the subject matter, the Petitioner asks the Court to declare the phrase “at least 4% (four percent) of the total national number of valid votes” in Article 414 paragraph (1) of the Election Law unconstitutional and not legally binding insofar as it is not interpreted as “Political parties participating in the election must meet threshold that is determined based on rational calculations and carried out openly, honestly, and fairly in accordance with the principles of a proportional electoral system.”

In addition, the Petitioner requests the Court to order the President and the House of Representatives as the legislatures to immediately make revisions to the provision of parliamentary threshold in the Election Law by formulating the figure based on rational calculations openly, honestly, and fairly in accordance with the principles of a proportional electoral system.

Author       : Utami Argawati
Editor        : Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR            : Raisa Ayuditha
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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