The Petitioner’s legal counsel Fadli Ramadhanil at a judicial review hearing of the provision on parliamentary threshold, Monday (12/11/2023). Photo by MKRI/Ifa.
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 Monday, December 11, 2023. The hearing for cases No. 116/PUU-XXI/2023, filed by the Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem), and No. 124/PUU-XXI/2023, filed by the Ummat Party, was presided over by Chief Justice Suhartoyo and the other eight constitutional justices.
The hearing had been scheduled to hear the House of Representatives (DPR) and the Petitioner’s expert but, according to the Registrar’s Office’s report, the House was in recess and the Petitioner’s expert’s testimony had passed the deadline of two workdays before the hearing.
“The expert testimony was not received until Friday, so it was less than two workdays. Therefore, we will hear the expert at the next hearing,” Chief Justice Constitutional Justice Suhartoyo announced.
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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.”
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.
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Ummat Party’s central executive board, represented by Ridho Ramhadi (chairman) and A. Muhajir (secretary-general), petitions Article 414 paragraph (1) of Law No. 7 of 2017 of the Election Law in case No. 124/PUU-XXI/2023.
At the preliminary hearing on Tuesday, October 10, legal counsel Muhammad Yuntri questioned the 4% threshold set for the DPR seats in the current Election Law. One of the Petitioner’s legal counsels Muhammad Yuntri said that the parliamentary thresholds set for the previous elections were 2% in 1999; and 3% for DPR and 4% for Provincial DPRD in the 2004 Election, in which 24 political parties participated. Meanwhile, in the 2009 Election, which was based on Law No. 10 of 2008 on General Elections of Members of DPR and DPRD, the threshold was 2.5% of the total number of national valid votes.
The Petitioner argues that the threshold for political parties to be included in the allocation of the DPR seat as stipulated in Article 414 paragraph (1) of the Election Law is not only based on the acquisition of national valid votes. They believe that the accumulation of DPR seat acquisition of all electoral districts (dapil) must also be included since the “price” for a seat in electoral districts outside of the Java Island is lower than that inside Java. This system is another form of fair guarantee for a more proportional election as mandated by the Constitution.
Therefore, the Ummat Party requests the Court to declare Article 414 paragraph (1) of Election Law unconstitutional and not legally binding if not interpreted as, “A political party contesting in an election must reach the electoral threshold, which is 4% (four percent) of the national number of valid votes or 4% (four percent) of the number of DPR seats, in order to be included in the seat allocation for DPR members.”
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.
Monday, December 11, 2023 | 15:19 WIB 201