A material judicial review petition of Law No. 10 of 2016 on the Regional Election, Thursday (3/7/2024). Photo by MKRI/Ilham W. M.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Constitutional Court (MK) held another material judicial review hearing of Law No. 10 of 2016 on the Second Amendment to Law No. 1 of 2015 on the Stipulation of Government Regulation in Lieu of Law No. 1 of 2014 on the Election of Governors, Regents, and Mayors into Law (Pilkada Law) on Thursday, March 7, 2024 in the plenary courtroom. The petition was filed by the Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem).

Alongside Constitutional Justices M. Guntur Hamzah and Arsul Sani, Deputy Chief Justice Saldi Isra (panel chair) stated that the Court had received an email by the Petitioner through its legal counsel at 05:57 WIB that day. The email requested the retraction of the petition. Exercising caution, the Court asked for confirmation of the request and the reason behind it.

Legal counsel Fadli Ramadhanil confirmed the request. “The letter was indeed sent by the Petitioner through [me], requesting the petition’s retraction. The reason is that based on the advice by (the panel of justices) and considering the results of the first hearing, we considered to re-file the petition with the inclusion of the national election mapping,” he said virtually.

Also read: Perludem Requests Regional Election to Start March 2025

In the petition No. 29/PUU-XXII/2024, Perludem challenged Article 201 paragraphs (7), (8), and (9) of the Pilkada Law. Essentially, it requested that the Court reinterpret the norm so that the nationally simultaneous regional election take place on March 2025 and the regional heads-elect be inaugurated by July 2025.

“It is important to rearrange the schedule for simultaneous regional head election, simultaneous inauguration, and it is related to strengthening the presidential system and the national development system and regional development,” said legal counsel Fadli Ramadhanil at the preliminary hearing on Friday, February 23, 2024 in the plenary courtroom.

The Pilkada Law orders that the regional election be held in November 2024. The General Elections Commission (KPU) has also decided to hold it on November 27, 2024. However, the Petitioner asserted that lately there have been indications that the simultaneous regional election will be moved forward to September 2024.

It argued that the schedule for simultaneous regional election in all regions of Indonesia is an important variable of the electoral system that will affect the technical implementation of the election as well as the quality of the government formed from the election results.

It also argued that not only the technical problems of organizing the election but also the determination of the regional election schedule has a direct impact on the management of election and the quality of people’s sovereignty to determine their own governors, regents, mayors, and their deputies.

As such, the Petitioner asserted, the regional election schedule—November 27, 2024—will lead to the constitutional issue of the failure to hold an honest, fair, and democratic regional election. It is important that the Constitutional Court, it said, provide constitutional protection by reinterpreting the a quo Law and decide that the regional election be held in March 2025 and the inauguration in July 2025. 

Author       : Sri Pujianti
Editor        : Nur R.
PR            : Tiara Agustina
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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