The Petitioners’ legal counsels after a judicial review hearing of Law No. 3 of 2024 on Villages, Thursday (10/3/2024). Photo by MKRI/Ifa.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Constitutional Court (MK) held another material judicial review hearing of Law No. 3 of 2024 on the Second Amendment to Law No. 6 of 2014 on Villages on Thursday, October 3, 2024. This petition was filed by the Association of United Village Associations and three village heads (Petitioner I-IV).

The Court was supposed to hear the House of Representatives (DPR) and the President/Government. However, the House was absent while the Government stated that they were not prepared to testify. Therefore, the Court postponed the hearing until Thursday, October 24 at 10:30 WIB.

“The Court received two letters from those two institutions, informing that their testimonies could not be presented. They asked for a delay to finalize their testimonies, while the House asked for a reschedule as they are undergoing a change of leadership and members,” said Chief Justice Suhartoyo alongside seven other constitutional justices in the plenary courtroom.

Meanwhile, on behalf of the President/Government, the Ministry of Law and Human Rights’ coordinator for the settlement of legislative disputes on politics, law, and security Purwoko said that the President’s written testimony had not been completed and that further coordination would be needed to finalize it.

“It is true that we requested for a postponement since the President’s testimony still needs coordination to be finalized,” he said.

Also read:

Nearing the End of Term, Village Heads Ask For a Prolong Period

Petitioners of Village Law Asks to Prioritize Their Petition

The Petitioners of case No. 107/PUU-XXIV/2024 feel aggrieved because Article 118 letter e of the Village Law does not mention that the terms of office of village ending in November 2023, December 2023, and January 2024 are also extended.

They submitted a request to the Court to make this petition a priority to provide protection of their constitutional rights and to minimize potential constitutional loss.

They believe the Village Law should accommodate a two-year extension for village heads whose terms of office end in November 2023, December 2023, and January 2024. However, the a quo norm only mentions that village heads whose term of office ends in February 2024 can be extended. Therefore, there is no legal certainty for the Petitioners.

The Petitioners allege that the problem occurred due to the Minister of Home Affairs interpretation of the a quo norm. The Minister, through Circular Letter No. 100.3.5.5/2625/SJ dated June 5, 2024, did not interpret the norm to include village heads whose terms of office ended in November 2023, December 2023, and January 2024.

As a result of this circular letter, the Petitioners stated that they felt constitutionally harmed because the village heads whose terms of office ended in November 2023, December 2023, and January 2024 did not receive a term extension. In fact, it was repeatedly emphasized by the speaker of the House of Representatives (DPR) that the a quo article refers to village heads whose terms of office ended in November 2023, December 2023, January 2024, and February 2024.

They argue that the House speaker had had a coordination meeting with by the Secretary-General of the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Director-General of Legislation of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, the Deputy for Legislation and Legal Administration of the Ministry of State Secretariat, the head of the House’s Board of Expertise, and two village organizations, APDESI (Indonesian Association of Village Administrations) and AKSI (Association of Indonesian Village Heads). At the meeting, it was agreed that Article 118 letter e would accommodate village heads whose terms of office would end in November 2023, December 2023, and January 2024 while not being charged for any crime or resigning.

However, on January 14, 2023, the Minister of Home Affairs issued the Circular Letter No. 100.3.5.5/244/SJ on the implementation of village head elections during the simultaneous general and regional elections in 2024, which basically stated that village head elections could be held before November 1, 2023 or after the completion of the 2024 general and regional election stages. With the circular, village heads whose terms of office ended in November, December 2023, and January 2024 could not participate in the village head election, so Petitioner I requested that the Minister provide confirmation to regents and mayors so that village head elections be accelerated before November 2023 on the grounds that there were simultaneous election stages, but the Minister’s confirmation to the regents or mayors did not work out, so it was detrimental to Petitioners II, III, and IV and 2,181 village heads whose terms of office ended in November 2023, December 2023, and January 2024.

In their petitum, the Petitioners request the Court to declare Article 118 letter e of Law No. 3 of 2024 (“Village Heads whose term of office ends in February 2024 may be extended in accordance with the provisions of this Law”) unconstitutional. The Petitioners wishes that the article be interpreted as, “Village Heads whose terms of office ended in November 2023, December 2023, January 2024, and February 2024 may be extended in accordance with the provisions of this Law.”

Author            : Mimi Kartika
Editor             : Nur R.
PR                 : Raisa Ayuditha Marsaulina
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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