The constitutional justices entering the courtroom for a judicial review hearing of the Election Law, Monday (7/15/2024). Photo by MKRI/Ilham W.M.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — Ahmad Sadzali, a law lecturer at the Islamic University of Indonesia (UII) and five UII students has petitioned Article 523 paragraphs (1) and (2) of Law No. 7 of 2017 on General Elections (Election Law) to the Constitutional Court (MK). The preliminary hearing for case No. 59/PUU-XXII/2024 was presided over by Chief Justice Suhartoyo (panel chair) and Constitutional Justices Arief Hidayat and Daniel Yusmic P. Foekh in the plenary courtroom on Monday, July 15, 2024.

The Petitioners asserted that the articles are against Article 1 paragraph (3), Article 27 paragraph (1), and Article 28D paragraph (1) of the 1945 Constitution for not providing legal certainty to volunteers who have committed criminal acts of money politics (vote buying) during the general election. They believe the articles has limited the subject of the act, thus causing ambiguity and leads to legal uncertainty that is against the principles of a rule of law as set forth in Article 1 paragraph (3) of the 1945 Constitution.

Muhammad Alfata Birza (Petitioner II) asserted that the provision has made it difficult to demand accountability from other individuals or groups (volunteers) who are indirectly involved in and unregistered with the General Elections Commission (KPU), but could have negative impacts in electoral campaigns.

Therefore, in the petitums, the Petitioners asked that the Court declare the phrase “an electoral campaign organizer, team, and/or participant” in Article 523 paragraphs (1) and (2) of the Election Law unconstitutional and not legally binding on perpetrators of election crimes as the subject is limiting, i.e. only those whose names are mentioned on the appointment letter of electoral campaign organizers, teams, and/or participants reported to the central, provincial, and regency/city KPU. They argue that this proof of the weak enforcement of electoral laws should be revised into “any person.”

Justices’ Advice

In his advice, Justice Arief Hidayat said that the Petitioners must focus on their constitutional impairment as lecturer and students due to the enforcement of the articles. He also recommended that they study the Court’s decisions on the expansion of legal subjects and the severity of the sanction in relation to the petition’s arguments.

“In the event of money politics, not only the campaign team is convicted; anyone can be. However, this is the legislatures’ jurisdiction. The Court shouldn’t be asked to be a positive legislator by revising this norm,” he said.

Meanwhile, Chief Justice Suhartoyo said that the expansion of legal subjects that the Petitioners request would take away people’s freedom, thus is the legislatures’ jurisdiction. He advised them to explain their constitutional impairment due to vote buying in elections.

“For example, due to the crime of money politics, [the Petitioners] as votes has suffered loss as they found the election to not be honest and fair, and so on. The arguments must be reinforced with elaboration of the losses in relation to the legal standing,” he said.

Before concluding the hearing, he announced that the Petitioners would have to submit it to the Registrar’s Office by Monday, July 29.  

Author              : Sri Pujianti
Editor               : Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR                   : Fauzan Febriyan
Translators        : 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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