The Constitutional Court (MK), Tuesday (20/8) granted the petition of the Gelora Party and the Labor Party regarding the Regional Head Election (Pilkada) Law. In its ruling, the Constitutional Court stated that political parties or coalitions of political parties participating in the Election can register regional head candidate pairs even though they do not have seats in the Regional People's Representative Council or DPRD.
The Constitutional Court's decision, read by its chairman, Suhartoyo, annulled the requirement for political parties or coalitions of parties to nominate candidate pairs in regional head elections if they have a minimum of 20 percent of seats in the DPRD or at least 25 percent of the vote.
“To propose gubernatorial and deputy gubernatorial candidates for provinces with a population listed on the permanent voter list (DPT) of up to two million people, political parties or coalitions of political parties participating in the election must obtain at least ten percent of valid votes in the province,” he said.
Suhartoyo added that for provinces with a fixed number of voters of 2-6 million, the minimum vote acquisition requirement is 8.5 percent. Meanwhile, if the number is 6-12 million, then the requirement is 7.5 percent, and if the number is 12 million people or more, the requirement is 6.5 percent.
To propose candidates for regent and deputy regent, or candidates for mayor and deputy mayor, districts/cities with a population listed on the permanent voter list (DPT) of up to 250 thousand people, political parties participating in the election must obtain at least 10 percent of valid votes in the district/city.
For districts/cities with a population listed on the DPT of more than 250 thousand to 500 thousand people, political parties participating in the election must obtain at least 8.5 percent of valid votes. If the district/city with a population listed on the DPT of more than 500 thousand to 1 million people, political parties participating in the election must obtain at least 7.5 percent of valid votes, and if more than 1 million people, the vote acquisition must be at least 6.5 percent.
Responding to the Constitutional Court's ruling, the head of the Labor Party's legal team as the applicant, Sauid Salahuddin, explained that the reason the party sued Article 40 of the Regional Election Law Number 10 of 2016 concerning the threshold for submitting candidates was because it felt uncomfortable with the political constellation at the lower level.
He added that what is happening now is an attempt to buy up political parties by certain candidate pairs. This, he said, is contrary to the principles of the Labor Party which prioritizes the principle of democracy.
“We don't want the regional elections to distance us from the big goal of building a healthy democracy. We see that there are constitutional losses that we experience when we happen to not have seats (in the DPRD) in a number of regions. That is unfair when compared to political parties that have seats,” he said.
With the issuance of the Constitutional Court's decision, Said continued, political parties will implement new strategies. This decision also causes the number of candidates competing to be greater so that the public is given more choices.
Electoral law lecturer at the University of Indonesia Titi Anggraini welcomed the Constitutional Court's ruling. She considered it a progressive decision, because it would present a fairer regional head election contestation.
“The Constitutional Court's (MK) Decision Number 60 of 2024 reconstructs the nomination requirements, making it easier for political parties to nominate candidate pairs in the 2024 simultaneous regional elections,” he told VOA.
According to Titi, the Constitutional Court's decision could prevent the phenomenon of single candidates or candidates supported by large coalitions, which have the potential to weaken the role and control function of political parties in parliament.
The same thing was also expressed by constitutional law expert from Andalas University Feri Amsari. According to him, the Constitutional Court's decision was extraordinary news considering that recently there has been frequent hijacking of political parties. In fact, he said, there were candidates whose political preferences were quite high but could not get a boat to be able to advance in the competition.
“For me, this is unhealthy because it hinders various public opportunities. We as voters will have difficulty building alternative choices. Because there are none, everything is forced. Especially if a single candidate is up against an empty box. How can we be forced to choose something that is not our alternative choice,” he said.
The Constitutional Court's decision came when 12 parties that are members of the Advanced Indonesia Coalition (KIM) agreed to support the candidate pair Ridwan Kamil-Suswono for the Jakarta gubernatorial election.
Deputy Chairman of the Golkar Party Ahmad Doli Kurnia said that KIM will soon hold a meeting to discuss the Constitutional Court's decision. He did not deny that the Constitutional Court's decision could change the election contestation in several regions. KIM, he said, will sit together to remap their winning strategy. (fw/ab)
