The Constitutional Court Did Not Find Evidence Of Jokowi's Intervention Passing Gibran As A Vice Presidential Candidate

President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) (ANTARA)

JAKARTA - Constitutional Court (MK) judges did not find strong evidence about the intervention of President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) in changing the requirements for presidential candidates. In particular, the nomination of Gibran Rakabuming Raka as a vice presidential candidate (cawapres) in the General Election contestation (Pemilu).

"There is no convincing evidence that the Court has intervened with the president in changing the requirements of the presidential candidate pair in 2024," said Judge Arief Hidayat during the General Recovery Result Dispute (PHPU) trial at the Constitutional Court, Monday, April 22.

According to the Court, the Constitutional Court's decision number 90/PUU-XXI/2023 is not strong evidence to convince that there has been intervention and nepotism by Jokowi as President of the Republic of Indonesia.

In particular, as a way to smooth the way for Gibran Rakabuming Raka to run as a vice presidential candidate.

"It does not necessarily become sufficient evidence to convince the court that there has been an act of nepotism that gave birth to the president's abuse of power in changing the terms of the candidate pair," he said.

Moreover, referring to the conclusion of the decision of the Honorary Council of the Constitutional Court (MKMK) number 2/MKMK/L/11/2023 which was then quoted in the decision of the Court number 141 of 2023, it was emphasized that the Constitutional Court had not had the authority to cancel the treatment of the Constitutional Court's decision in the context of dispute over the election results.

However, the problem that can be argued is no longer about validity or constitutionality, requirements, but is more appropriate to be addressed to the fulfillment of conditions than pairs of candidates for election participants.

"Thus, according to the Court, the problem in fulfilling the requirements for Gibran Rakabuming Raka as a vice presidential candidate from related parties and the results of verification and determination of the candidate pair carried out by the respondent are in accordance with these provisions," said Arief.

As a reminder, the Constitutional Court is scheduled to read out the decision of the 2024 presidential election dispute trial at the trial which will be held starting at 09.00 WIB.

Even though on one trial agenda, the verdict was read out separately according to the case registration number, namely the presidential and vice-presidential candidate pair number 1 Anies Baswedan-Muhaimin Iskandar, then presidential and vice-presidential candidates number 3 Ganjar Pranowo-Mahfud MD.

In the petitum of his petition, both Anies-Muhaimin and Ganjar-Mahfud asked the Constitutional Court to cancel the results of the 2024 presidential election and ordered the KPU to re-vote without including Prabowo Subianto-Gibran Rakabuming Raka.

Then, Anies-Muhaimin has an alternative petition petitum, namely to disqualify Gibran as a vice presidential candidate during the re-voting, so Prabowo must look for another vice presidential candidate.