Three Judges Against Presidential Threshold

VIVAnews - Three judges out of eight at the Constitutional Court disagreed with the decision stating that a presidential candidate can only be nominated by a major party, i.e. that obtaining at least 20 percent seats in the House of Representatives (DPR).

According to them article 9 of Law No. 42/2008 does not constitute a presidential threshold which restricts political parties from nominating presidential and vice presidential candidates.

The three judges, namely Akil Muchtar, Maruarar Siahaan and Mukthie Fadjar, stated that the 1945 Constitution does not mandate lawmakers to prepare said conditions. "The article does not regulate any qualifications. On the contrary, it deals with the methods," said Akil Muchtar on Wednesday, Feb 18.

They agreed that the requirement has already been specified in article 6 of the 1945 Constitution so it cannot be muddled. In addition, they also rejected the argument made by most constitutional judges stating that the requirement aims at gaining more supports from the people for the presidential and vice presidential candidates.

Based on the 2004 elections experience, the three judges viewed that the end result of the presidential Elections did not correlate with the legislative Elections as well as total votes that a party obtained or merged parties proposing the candidacy.

The three judges also viewed that by implementing the parliamentary threshold which has been declared as constitutional, it will be more legitimate if the presidential threshold for political parties is similar to parliamentary threshold. "It is around 2.5 percent," said Muchtar.

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Translated by: Ariyantri E Tarman