Raziv Barokah (center) delivering the petition revisions at a panel judicial review hearing of the Regional Election Law and the DKJ Law, Thursday (10/10/2024). Photo by MKRI/Ifa.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Petitioners of case No. 125/PUU-XXII/2024 have revised their petition on the Law on the Election of Governors, Regents, and Mayors (Pilkada Law). They asked that the empty column or blank vote remains an option in seven articles—five in the Pilkada Law and two in the Law on the Special Regional Province of Jakarta (DKJ Law).

“The seven articles actually concern the same thing, so we request that the blank vote be accommodated in these articles,” said Petitioner III Raziv Barokah at the petition revision hearing on Thursday, October 10, 2024 in the plenary courtroom.

He explained the absence of any arrangement on the empty column in the ballot paper in Article 79 paragraph (1) of the Pilkada Law, on the empty column to represent a valid vote under in Article 85 paragraph (1) and Article 94 of the Pilkada Law, on the empty column in the regional head election in Article 107 paragraph (1) and Article 109 of the Pilkada Law, as well as on the empty column in the regional head election for the Special Regional Province (DKJ) in Article 10 paragraphs (2) and (3) of the DKJ Law. Given that some of the petitioners are Jakarta residents, he believes it is important to review the DKJ Law.

Following the justices’ advice at the preliminary hearing, the Petitioners explained the solution in the event that the empty column wins an election. Raziv stated that a runoff can be carried out the following year.

If the empty column wins that runoff, the Petitioners argued, there is a precedent in a mayoral election in Colombia in 2011 where a second runoff be carried out. Raziv said that the reconfiguration of political parties in said second runoff allowed for the election of a better candidate pair that were said to be more representative of the people’s will.

This also occurred in the 2018 mayoral election of Makassar, where the empty column won against a single-candidate. In an election the following year, Raziv said, political reconfiguration resulted in four candidate pairs with high electability.

“These highly-electable figures who had failed to run in the election even won the runoff. Therefore, there should be no concern that a blank vote winning not leading to a government that the people elect,” he explained.

He added that if a blank vote wins a runoff again and again, the Petitioners believe it is the price to pay by stakeholders for failing to cater to the people’s aspirations. However, they believe it would not happen.

Also read: Petitioners Wish Empty Column Be Made an Option Alongside Candidates

Heriyanto, Ramdansyah, and Raziv Barokah (Petitioners I-III) asserted that they believe the current regional head candidates do not reflect the people’s aspirations but the political party elite instead. They believe regional head candidates in a number of regions are endorsed not in the public interest, but only in the elite’s interest. In fact, because a large coalition has been formed, it may result in only one regional head candidate pair, which will have to win against an empty column.

However, they wish that the empty column to apply to regions that have two or more regional head candidate pairs to reflect voters’ refusal to choose the existing tickets.

In essence, the Petitioners want to that the empty column or blank vote remains an option on the ballot for regions that have two or more candidate pairs, which count toward valid votes and may affect election results. In their petitum, they ask the Court to declare Article 79 paragraph (1) of Law No. 1 of 2015, Article 94 of Law No. 8 of 2015, as well as Article 107 paragraph (1) and Article 109 paragraph (1) Law No. 10 of 2016 unconstitutional and not legally binding if not interpreted as they requested.

Author         : Mimi Kartika
Editor          : Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR               : Fauzan Febriyan
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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