Constitutional Court Holds Election System Decision Session, Still Proportional Open Or Closed Again?

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JAKARTA - The Constitutional Court (MK) held a trial to decide the trial of the election law lawsuit regarding an open proportional system.

Spokesman for the Constitutional Court (MK) Fajar Laksono previously said the trial was held at 9.30 WIB, Thursday, June 15.

Fajar explained that the constitutional judges had accepted the conclusions from the parties on Wednesday, May 31.

The Constitutional Court (MK) has tried a judicial review of Article 168 paragraph (2) of the Election Law related to an open proportional system registered with case registration number 114/PUU-XX/2022 on November 14, 2022.

The six applicants are Demas Brian Wicaksono (Permohon I), Yuwono Pintadi (Pemohon II), Fahrurrozi (Pemohon III), Ibnu Rachman Jaya (Permohon IV), Riyanto (Pemohon V), and Nono Marijono (Pemohon VI).

Eight of the nine political party factions in the DPR RI also stated that they rejected the closed proportional electoral system, namely the Golkar, Gerindra, Democrat, NasDem, PAN, PKB, PPP, and PKS factions. Only one faction wants a closed proportional election system, namely the PDI-P.

Furthermore, there was an issue regarding the leak of the Constitutional Court's decision regarding the electoral system. The issue surfaced due to a tweet by former Deputy Minister of Law and Human Rights (Wamenkumham) Denny Indrayana who claimed to have received information about the decision of the Constitutional Court (MK) regarding the legislative election system which will return to a closed proportional system or party voting.

On this suspicion, MK spokesman Fajar Laksono has submitted a rebuttal.

The closed proportional electoral system is the general election system that is carried out by choosing only political parties. So people do not choose the names of candidates for people's representatives who run in elections. The public will only vote on the symbols or pictures of available political parties.

When implementing a closed proportional electoral system, only the list of parties is displayed in the ballot. Voters cannot see who the candidates for the people's representatives are personally. So the elected representatives of the people will be determined by their political parties based on serial numbers. For example, when a political party carries five candidates and gets two votes, only two names in the top rank will get the seats.

In contrast to the open proportional electoral system, where people can directly choose the names of individual candidates for representatives of the people. This electoral system has been implemented in general elections in Indonesia at previous events.

The closed proportional electoral system chooses a number of advantages, but there are also some shortcomings.

Excess Closed Proportional Election System Excess

Lack Of Closed Proportional Election System