Judicial Review (Peninjauan Kembali)

Yusril challenges Presidential Election Law

 Ina Parlina, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Headlines | Sat, December 14 2013, 10:15


 AMYusril, a former law and human rights minister, submitted a judicial review request against the law with the Constitutional Court (MK) on Friday, five days after declaring his presidential bid, which was only weeks after the election of Hamdan Zoelva, a former PBB lawmaker, as the court’s new chief justice. He demanded the court scrap several articles in the law, including a stipulation that a party must gain 20 percent of seats at the House of Representatives or 25 percent of the national legislative vote to nominate a presidential candidate. He argued the legislative and presidential elections should be held simultaneously, which meant the legislative threshold to nominate a president would be unnecessary. As a presidential hopeful, Yusril said he now had the legal standing to file the petition. Several major political parties, including the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the ruling Democratic Party (PD) and the Golkar Party, have raised concerns over a possible conflict of interest in the handling of Yusril’s petition. Yusril and Hamdan were among the politicians who demanded that the Presidential Election Law be reviewed in 2008, demanding the presidential threshold provision be removed. At the time, the court rejected the petition. Didi Irawadi of the PD suggested Hamdan recuse himself from the panel of judges presiding over the judicial review to avoid a conflict of interest. “There is no other choice but to ensure that Pak Hamdan is not on the panel of judges,” he said. After winning several legal battles against the government, including a lawsuit against the General Elections Commission’s (KPU) decision to disqualify his party for the 2014 poll, Yusril said he was upbeat about his petition being granted by the court. He argued the Constitution stated Indonesia embraced a presidential system in which the presidential election should be held before or at the same time as the legislative election. “As we all know, in a republic [presidential] system we first hold a presidential election before holding a legislative election, or we hold both presidential and legislative elections simultaneously. Holding a legislative election before a presidential election only exists in a parliamentary system,” he said. He later cited Article 22e of the Constitution, which stipulates elections are held once every five years and that elections aim to choose members of the House and the provincial legislative councils, as well as the president and vice president. The article, he argued, mandated simultaneous elections. Yusril said if granted, his petition would not disrupt the 2014 elections as the KPU could postpone the legislative election and hold it alongside the presidential election. Constitutional law expert Fajrul Falaakh said the court should reject Yusril’s petition. “Whatever the arguments are, basically he wants to scrap the presidential threshold provision. In this case, the court has been stern. Since it has rejected a similar petition, I’d say it will not grant his petition,” he said. “A presidential system does not exclusively mean having simultaneous elections. Take a look at the US.” Fajrul also criticized Yusril for challenging the law at the 11th hour. “Why should [he] tamper with the system now? With such little time before the elections, it will disrupt preparations,” he said

adopted from www.thejakartapost.com