The Decision Regarding The Threshold For Regional Head Elections Is Disallowed By The DPR, Here's The Response Of The Constitutional Court

Illustration of the Constitutional Court (MK). (Antanews)

JAKARTA - The Legislation Body (Baleg) of the DPR RI held a discussion on the revision of the Pilkada Law, the results of which did not accommodate the decision of the Constitutional Court (MK) as a whole. In fact, there is a Constitutional Court decision that was disallowed.

Constitutional Justice Enny Nurbaningsih admitted that his party could not comment or argue on the revision process because it was an institution that tested the law.

"The Constitutional Court should not comment on the bill being discussed in the DPR," Enny told reporters, Wednesday, August 21.

On Tuesday, August 20, the Constitutional Court issued case decisions number 60/PUU-XXII/2024 and number 70/PUU-XXII/2024.

In its decision case number 60/PUU-XXII/2024, the Constitutional Court changed the threshold for nomination of regional heads in the regional elections. The Constitutional Court allows parties to have no seats in the DPRD to participate in carrying regional head candidates, as well as reducing the amount of the nomination threshold.

Meanwhile, in the case decision number 70/PUU-XXII/2024, the Constitutional Court rejected the lawsuit for changing the age limit for regional head candidates, so that the candidate for governor-deputy must at least 30 years during the determination of the candidate.

Suddenly, today, the DPR Baleg agreed that the age rules for regional head candidates would still follow the decision of the Supreme Court (MA), not the Constitutional Court.

The Supreme Court's decision states that the age of cagub-cawagub is at least 30 years, and 25 years for candidates for mayors-candidates for deputy mayors starting from the time they are sworn in.

"Agreed, do you refer to the Supreme Court?" asked the Deputy Chairperson of the DPR Baleg, Achmad Baidowi (Awiek) at a meeting of the DPR Baleg with the DPD and the government at the DPR building, Wednesday, August 21.

The agreement was interrupted by the PDIP faction. However, Awiek said, the majority of the factions agreed to refer to the Supreme Court's decision regarding the requirements for the age limit for regional head candidates.

In addition, the Legislative Council of the Republic of Indonesia approved the threshold for new nominations from the Constitutional Court's decision but only applies to non-parliamentary political parties or those who do not have seats in the DPRD.

However, Baleg did not allow this new rule to be applied to political parties that already have seats, so they still refer to the old provisions, namely at least 20 percent of the total number of DPRD seats or 25 percent of valid votes.