Students Sue The Regional Head Election Law To The Constitutional Court Asking For Campaigns At Campus To Be Allowed

Students of the Faculty of Law, University of Indonesia, Sandy Yudha Pratama Hulu (right) and Stefanie Gloria (left)/ (ANTARA/HO-MK RI)

JAKARTA - Two students from the Faculty of Law, University of Indonesia, Sandy Yudha Pratama Hulu and Stefanie Gloria, sued the Pilkada Law by asking the Constitutional Court (MK) to allow campaigns on campus. The petitioners submitted a request for judicial review of Article 69 letter i of Law Number 1 of 2015. This article contains a prohibition on using places of worship and educational places in the regional head election campaign. " “ Along with the phrase ‘ educational venue ’ contrary to the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia and has no binding legal force,” Sandy read out the petitum at the preliminary examination hearing in the Plenary Session Room of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Indonesia, Jakarta, Antara, Friday, July 12. The petitioners asked that the phrase place of education in the ban on the Pilkada campaign be changed to exclude universities or similar mentions as long as they received permission from the person in charge of the place in question and attended without the attributes of the election campaign. The petitioners assessed that universities are an academic space to test the ideas offered by candidates for regional elections in their political campaigns. According to them, the presence of academic space in the campaign process can produce campaign formulations that are not minimal in ideas through the examination of ideas, truth, objectivity, and morality that are in line with the public interest. This is not to politicize universities. However, it is precisely to empower universities as neutral democratic institutions in the sciences needed to test and produce truly needed leadership candidates,” Stefanie said. On the other hand, the petitioners argued that the arrangement of permits to organize campaigns in educational places that have been regulated in the Election Law should also be applied in the Pilkada Law. In this case, Sandy and Stefanie alluded to the Constitutional Court Decision Number 65/PUU-XXI/2023. The decision essentially allows the election campaign to be carried out in government facilities and places of education as long as they get permission. " “ Based on the legal developments and interpretation of the Court regarding the absence of differences between the Election regime and the Pilkada, there should be coherence in the arrangement of permits to organize campaigns in universities in the electoral regulation regime to be applied equally in the election regulation regime,” Sandy said. In addition to the petitum in the main petition, the petitioners also submitted a petitum in the provision. They asked that the application registered with Number 69/PUU-XXII/2024 be prioritized. " “ Give priority cases to a quo cases or at least decide cases before the campaign stage for the candidate pairs for governor and deputy governor, regent and deputy regent, as well as mayors and deputy mayors in the 2024 Simultaneous Regional Head Elections,” Sandy said. During the trial, the petitioners took turns reading out the main points of the petition. The trial was chaired by Deputy Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court, Saldi Isra, accompanied by Constitutional Justices M. Guntur Hamzah and Arsul Sani.

At the end of the trial, constitutional judges gave advice to applicants regarding things that needed to be added to their petition. The two students were given 14 days to correct their petition.