The Petitioners, village head candidates of South Konawe Regency, at the panel preliminary hearing for the material judicial review of Law No. 3 of 2024 on Villages, Tuesday (8/6/2024). Photo by MKRI/Ifa.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Constitutional Court (MK) held the preliminary hearing for the material judicial review of Article 118 letter e of Law No. 3 of 2024 on the Second Amendment to Law No. 6 of 2014 on Villages on Tuesday, August 6, 2024. The case No. 92/PUU-XXII/2024 was filed by fourteen village chiefs candidates elected in the simultaneous village chief election (pilkades) in South Konawe Regency on September 24, 2023.

The enactment of Article 118(e) of the Village Law, which regulates the extension of the term of office of village heads whose terms of office expired on February 2024, has caused concrete and actual harm. Article 118(e) of the Village Law reads, “Village Heads whose term of office ends in February 2024 may be extended in accordance with the provisions of this Law.”

At the hearing chaired by Constitutional Justice Enny Nurbaningsih, legal counsel Andri Darmawan said that the enforcement of the article has delayed the Petitioners’ inauguration as village heads by the South Konawe regent on April 30, 2024, due to the Minister of Home Affairs letter No. 100.3.5. 5/1747/BPD dated April 26, 2024, which confirms that with the enactment of Article 118 letter e of the Village Law essentially requests the South Konawe regent to extend the term of office of the village heads for two years for the village heads whose term of office expires on April 30, 2024 and postpone the inauguration of 96 elected village heads until the end of the term of office of the current village heads. Thus, the Petitioners’ inauguration was canceled.

Andri revealed that on September 24, 2023, a village head election had taken place in 96 villages in South Konawe Regency, whose results had been counted and elected candidates had been certified. The Petitioners received the most votes in the 2023 simultaneous village head election and were certified as elected village head candidates by the election committee. Furthermore, the results have been submitted to the South Konawe Regency Government for certification from the South Konawe regent in the form of a decree.

Of the 96 villages, 59 of the elected village heads were new, 72 were incumbent seeking a re-election, while 35 incumbents were not re-elected including in the Petitioners’ villages. “This proves that villagers of half of the villages that conducted simultaneous village head election have exercised their sovereignty to determine who is worthy of leading the village governments for the next period and at the same time punishing the incumbents for being unsuccessful in running the villages,” he said.

The Petitioners, who have been directly elected by the villagers, are entitled to be inaugurated as village heads with a term of office of 8 (eight) years based on Article 118 e of the Village Law as a form of recognition of the constitutional rights of Indonesian citizens in the form of the right to popular sovereignty, the right to recognition, protection and fair legal certainty, the right to work and fair and decent treatment in employment relations, and the right to obtain equal opportunities in government as stipulated in the 1945 Constitution.

In their petitum, the Petitioners request that the Court declare Article 118 letter e of the Village Law unconstitutional and not legally binding if not interpreted as “Village Heads whose term of office ends in April 2024 may be extended in accordance with the provisions of this Law as long as the village head election and the certification of the village head election results have not been held.” Thus, the norm of Article 118 letter e should be amended to read, “Village Heads whose term of office ends in April 2024 may be extended in accordance with the provisions of this Law as long as the village head election has not been held and the results of the village head election have not been certified.”

Justices’ Advice

In response, Constitutional Justice Ridwan Mansyur said the reason for the petition was too little. “In the part of the reason for the petition, there should be a legal basis or rational as well as causality between the legal standing and the suffered loss. These must be explained,” he said.

Before adjourning the hearing, the panel announced that the Petitioners would have 14 days to revise the petition and must submit a revised petition by Monday, August 19 at 13:00 WIB to the Registrar’s Office. 

Author            : Utami Argawati
Editor             : N. Rosi
PR                 : Fauzan F.
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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