JAKARTA - The Constitutional Court (MK) has confirmed that the election of regional heads (pilkada) will still be carried out directly by the people.
"This is based on the principles of general election principles while still recognizing and respecting special or special regional government units," said Chief Justice Suhartoyo in the reading of the verdict Number 195/PUU-XXIV/2026, reported by ANTARA, Wednesday, July 1.
Thus, the Court stated that the request for testing Article 1 paragraph 1 of Law Number 8 of 2015 concerning the Election of Governors, Regents, and Mayors (Pilkada Law) was not acceptable.
The Constitutional Court, in its consideration, assessed that the applicant in the application 195/PUU-XXIV/2026 did not find what the applicant had submitted regarding matters that could actually or potentially harm constitutional rights, which could occur within the limits of reasonable reasoning.
The Court referred to legal considerations in the Constitutional Court Decision No. 072/PUU-II/2024 and 073/PUU-II/2004, Constitutional Court Decision No. 69/PUU-XXII/2024, and Constitutional Court Decision No. 110/PUU-XXII/2025.
The application was filed by Vendy Setiawan, Lala Komalawati, Susi Lestari, and Afifah Nabila Putri.
As students, they tested the phrase "directly and democratically" in Article 1 paragraph 1 of Law Number 8 of 2015 concerning the Election of Governors, Regents, and Mayors as amended and supplemented by Law Number 6 of 2020 (Law on Elections).
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 applicant revealed that the request was based on the reappearance of discussions regarding the possibility of changing the mechanism for the election of regional heads from the direct election system by the people to the election mechanism through the Regional Representative Council (DPRD) in recent years.
The four students assessed that the change has the potential to shift the principle of people's sovereignty which has been realized through the direct election of regional heads by the people.
Regarding this, the applicants considered Article 1, paragraph 1 of the Regional Head Election Law as a norm formulated ambiguously or multi-interpretable, 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 norm through the mechanism of testing laws.
The students said the direct election of regional heads was the fruit of reform as a correction to the selection practice by the DPRD which distanced the people from the political process.
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