Legal counsel M. Iqbal Sumarlan attending a judicial review hearing of the Election Law virtually, Wednesday (10/25/2023). Photo by MKRI/Fauzan.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Constitutional Court held another material judicial review hearing of Law No. 7 of 2017 on General Elections (Election Law) on Wednesday, October 25, 2023. The case No. 129/PUU-XXI/2023 was filed by advocate Gugum Ridho Putra.

The Petitioner questions Article 222 of the Election Law regarding the presidential threshold. At the on-site hearing, legal counsel M. Iqbal Sumarlan emphasized that the Petitioner is an individual citizen who holds an identification card (KTP) and works as an advocate focusing on constitutional and electoral issues. He argued that the Petitioner has a legal standing in his capacity as a voter in general elections as referred to in Article 1 point 34 of Law No. 7 of 2017. “The petitioner is currently 35 years old and has been married. Since he was 17 years old until now he has participated in the election three times,” said Iqbal in front of a panel of justice led by Deputy Chief Justice Saldi Isra.

Furthermore, he explained, there were additions to the legal standing and to the background of the petition, specifically in point 29. “The threshold provision, Article 222 of the Election Law, only determines the lower limit for candidacy without regulating other requirements for candidacy that allow parties to form a coalition and collect as many seats and votes as possible. 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 candidate pairs; or the presidential and vice-presidential election could be joined by only a single candidate pair,” he explained.

Also read: Petitioner Requests Increasing Presidential Threshold

At the preliminary hearing, the {etitioner conveyed that Article 222 is contrary to Article 1 paragraph (2); Article 6A paragraphs (1), (2), (3), (4), and (5); and Article 28D paragraph (1) of the 1945 Constitution. Article 222 could potentially cause legal uncertainty and allows for a super-dominant coalition that can lock the presidential election to only two candidate pairs or a single candidate pair. Based on this provision, 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 might form coalitions only to fulfill this minimum requirement for the nomination of president and vice president.

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.

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.”

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.

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