House of Representatives Chairman Honors the Supreme Court's Decision on Regional Heads to Be Directly Elected by the People

JAKARTA - House of Representatives (DPR) Chairwoman Puan Maharani stated that her party respects the Constitutional Court (MK) ruling regarding regional heads whose elections are still carried out directly by the people. According to him, the DPR will follow up on the ruling according to the applicable mechanism.

"We appreciate and respect what the Constitutional Court has decided," said Puan at the DPR building, Senayan, Jakarta, Thursday, July 2.

"Furthermore, we will follow up on this with existing mechanisms," he said.

The decision of the Constitutional Court Number 195/PUU-XXIV/2026 is the result of a request for testing Article 1 paragraph 1 of Law Number 8 of 2015 concerning the Election of Governors, Regents, and Mayors (Law on Elections). The test was submitted by 4 students.

As students, the applicants tested the phrase 'directly and democratically' in Article 1, paragraph 1 of the Regional Head Election Law. The article reads 'The election of the governor and deputy governor, regent and deputy regent, and mayor and deputy mayor, hereinafter referred to as the election, is the implementation of the sovereignty of the people in the provincial and district/city areas to elect the governor and deputy governor, regent and deputy regent, and mayor and deputy mayor directly and democratically'.

The applicants assessed Article 1, paragraph 1 of the Regional Head Election Law as a norm formulated in a vague or multi-interpretation, which can be a gateway for changes to the design of local democracy without going through the process of changing the constitution and ultimately has the potential to shift the principle of people's sovereignty.

In order to ensure that the principle of people's sovereignty is maintained, the applicants consider it necessary for the Constitutional Court to emphasize the mechanism for direct election by the people.

In his statement, the applicants submitted the testing of this article was based on the re-emergence of discourse regarding the possibility of changing the mechanism for the election of regional heads (Pilkada$ from a direct election system by the people to a selection mechanism through the Regional Representative Council (DPRD) which had developed for some time. last.

Meanwhile, regarding the ruling, the Constitutional Court emphasized that the mechanism for the election of regional heads to date has been carried out directly by the people with reference to the general election principles while still respecting the special or special local government units.