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Constitutional Court: Whatever happens, no run-off this year
Jakarta Globe - July 3, 2014
An article in the election law states that only a candidate who has secured a simple majority, with at least 20 percent of the vote in each of more than half of Indonesia's provinces, can be declared president.
"Granting all of the plaintiffs' requests," Constitutional Court Chief Justice Hamdan Zoelva said, in his verdict on a request for judicial review on the election law. The verdict had dissenting opinions from justices Wahiduddin Adams and Patrialis Akbar.
The plaintiffs were the Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem), and advocates Sunggul Hamonangan Sirait and Haposan Situmorang, who filed a judicial review of the specific article in the law. They requested the Constitutional Court to provide legal certainty that this year's presidential election can be held in only one round, arguing that the regulation should only be applied if more than two candidates were participating in the presidential race.
This year's presidential election is only contested by the pairs Prabowo Subianto-Hatta Rajasa and Joko Widodo-Jusuf Kalla. Justice Hamdan said the article did not apply when there were only two candidates running for the presidency.
"The Indonesian president of gets legitimation from the people. In this case there are only two pairs [of candidates] and the Constitutional Court considers that the nomination of the presidential candidates already represents all regions in Indonesia because the candidates are part of coalitions of political parties that represent all citizens in Indonesia. This means if there are only two pairs of candidates, the winner is the pair with the most votes," Justice Hamdan said.
In response to the verdict, the General Elections Commission (KPU) will hold a plenary meeting to revise its regulation on vote recapitulation and in deciding the winner.
"We have received a [copy] of the Court's ruling and we will hold a plenary meeting to decide which articles will be revised and which ones will be adjusted and which articles need to be emphasized," KPU commissioner Arief Budiman said in his office on Thursday.
Arief said the KPU will submit the revised draft to the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights to be passed into law. The plenary meeting will be held if it meets the quorum in which at least five KPU commissioners must attend.
The Joko-Kalla camp welcomed the Constitutional Court's ruling and said they were convinced that they will be able to win the race in one round.
"We are confident we can win in one round," said Ahmad Basarah, a member of the Joko-Kalla campaign team. He denied that he only welcomed the ruling because he was confident that Joko-Kalla would win in one round.
"You can't translate the Constitutional Court's ruling based only on the interests of individuals. The ruling should be based on all efforts to enforce the constitution," Basarah said.
Yusril Ihza Mahendra, a former justice minister, previously warned that the articles would cause major problems if they were not revised.
"That means that even if a candidate gets the majority of votes, but those votes come from just a few big provinces and he doesn't fare as well in the rest of the provinces, then a another round of voting is required," he said previously.
"Obviously that's going to be a huge cost, but that's what the Constitution says. And if either of the candidates protest, there might be the potential for violence by their supporters," he said recently.
The 20 percent requirement in half of all provinces, introduced as part of a set of amendments in 2001, is there for a good reason, constitutional law expert Irman Putra Sidin said. It gives the president greater legitimacy by ensuring that he or she gets votes from across the country, and not only from the cluster of provinces in Java, which account for around 40 percent of all registered voters.
"What we're looking for is a president for Indonesia – for the whole of Indonesia, who has strong support from the majority of provinces across the country," Irman said.
Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/constitutional-court-whatever-happens-run-year/.
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