Law Lecturer Ahmad Sadzali and UII students as petitioners delivering revision on their petition of Law No. 7 of 2017 on Election Law, Tuesday (7/30/2024). Photo by MKRI/Panji.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — The judicial review of Article 523 paragraphs (1) and (2) of Law No. 7 of 2017 on General Elections (Election Law) continues in the Constitutional Court (MK) on Tuesday, July 30, 2024, in the plenary courtroom. Ahmad Sadzali, a law lecturer at the Islamic University of Indonesia (UII), and five UII students attended this second hearing, which was presided over by Chief Justice Suhartoyo (panel chair), Justice Arief Hidayat, and Justice Daniel Yusmic P. Foekh.

Ahmad Sadzali conveyed the revisions to petition No. 59/PUU-XXII/2024, including adding petitioner Syafiq (Petitioner IV), subject matters consisting of Article 22E paragraph (1), Article 28J paragraph (1), and Article 29 paragraph (1) of the 1945 Constitution. In addition, Petitioners also reiterate their constitutional loss due to the enactment of the aforementioned law as part of their legal standings.

“As an educator, Petitioner I feel harm by the enactment of the norm due to difficulties and being pessimistic when teaching about democracy and election due to the practice of vote-buying. Then, Petitioner III, as a political observer, deemed vote-buying as unhealthy due to a violation of his constitutional rights as a voter.  Petitioner IV who is also a political observer scrutinize over the high political cost, so it is hard to get candidate with integrity as a result of the vote-buying practice,” Ahmad explained.

Also read: Petitioners Question Legal Subjects in Provision on Vote Buying

At the preliminary hearing on Monday, July 15, 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 have limited the subject of the act, thus causing ambiguity and leading 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.

The Petitioners also said 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, they 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.”

Author              : Sri Pujianti
Editor               : Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR                   : Fauzan Febriyan
Translators       : Yuniar Widiastuti/Rizky Kurnia Chaesario (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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