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Jakarta, MKRI – Four lecturers submitted a revision of the judicial review petition of Article 222 of Law No. 7 of 2017 on General Elections (General Election Law). Under the petitum, the Petitioners ask the Constitutional Court to declare the abovementioned article contradicts the 1945 Constitution and to interpret the article as they propose. The case no. 87/PUU-XXII/2024 was filed by Former Bawaslu Chairman Muhammad, Dian Fitri Sabrina, S Muchtadin Al Attas, and Muhammad Saad, who are also election activists.

“President and Vice President candidate-pairs are nominated by a political party or coalition of political parties participating in the election that meets the requirements for seat acquisition in the Parliament (DPR), as long as it does not exceed the highest percentage of the winning political party,” Petitioner Muchtasin Al Attas read the petitum on Tuesday, August 20, 2024.

Meanwhile, Article 222 of the Election Law reads, “Candidate pairs are nominated by a political party or a coalition of political parties participating in the elections that meet the requirements of obtaining at least 20% (twenty percent) of the total number of seats in the DPR or obtaining 25% (twenty-five percent) of the national valid votes in the previous DPR elections.” According to the Petitioners, the provision undermines the independence of political parties to nominate presidential and vice-presidential candidates.

The Petitioners argued that political parties are systemically forced to form coalitions to meet the requirements of obtaining at least 20 percent of the total seats in the House of Representatives or obtaining 25 percent of the national total legitimate votes. The emasculation of party independence is seen in every presidential and vice presidential election contestation; for example, in the 2019 elections, it was seen that PDIP obtained 27,053,961 votes, equivalent to 19.33 percent of the total national legitimate votes. These results made PDIP the winning political party in the 2019 elections.

The Petitioners added that in the 2024 General Election, PDIP, as the winner of the previous election, was systemically forced by election law to form a coalition to meet the minimum nomination threshold. Meanwhile, other political parties with lower votes than PDIP will certainly find it even more difficult to meet the presidential nomination threshold requirements.

Political parties that obtain few votes must build more coalitions, even accompanied by certain commitments, and do not have the opportunity or power to nominate their own candidates. In fact, said the Petitioner, such parties are often only limited to providing support, while the decision to nominate a presidential candidate remains in the hands of a major party or the winning party.

Based on these reasons, the Petitioners consider Article 222 of the Election Law to be contrary to Article 28D paragraph (3) of the 1945 Constitution. According to the Petitioners, the idea of a maximum threshold using seats in the DPR as the basis for determining the right of political parties to nominate presidential and vice-presidential candidates is in line with the concept of simplifying political parties, which has been proposed as a way out of the polemics so far.

Also read: Lecturers Request to Review Presidential Threshold Requirements

During the preliminary hearing, Petitioners argued that the threshold setting makes the right to nominate presidential and vice presidential candidates only accessible to election elites who have a high percentage in the previous election and closes access to political parties participating in the election with a low percentage who do not want to go into coalition. (*)

Penulis: Mimi Kartika
Editor: Lulu Anjarsari P.
Humas: Raisa Ayuditha Marsaulina

Translator: Rizky Kurnia Chaesario

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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