TRIBUNNEWS.COM – The Constitutional Court (MK) decided to remove the presidential threshold (PT) in the requirements for filing nominations for presidential and vice presidential elections, Thursday (2/1/2024).
Researcher at the Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem), Fadli Ramadhanil, said this was a long-awaited decision by the public.
“This is a decision that can be said to be phenomenal and has been awaited for quite a long time, at least by many members of the public,” he said in the Breaking News program on Kompas TV, Thursday.
“Maybe also some political parties who want equal opportunities for all political parties participating in the election to be able to propose a presidential and vice presidential candidate pair,” he added.
Fadli believes that efforts to remove the presidential threshold have been made since this provision first appeared in 2004.
“This is increasingly irrelevant because starting in 2019, the presidential and legislative elections were held simultaneously.”
“So it is no longer relevant that the results of the DPR election, the previous election or the acquisition of DPR seats in the previous election are used as a basis for political parties to be able to propose a presidential candidate pair,” he said.
According to him, with this decision, in the future the Constitutional Court can provide legal certainty to all political parties participating in the election.
That way, all political parties that register as election participants after passing verification by the KPU for the 2029 elections have the right and opportunity to propose their own presidential candidate pairs.
“This means that if there is a new political party, for example, that does not have seats in the DPR, does not have votes in the previous election, but meets the requirements to become an election participant in the 2029 Election, they have the right to propose a presidential candidate pair without having to join a political party that already has seats or has votes.”
“So this is clearly a decision that deserves great appreciation from the Constitutional Court even though it was only decided today, but this is clearly a decision that has implications for improving the electoral system in the process of nominating the president and vice president in Indonesia in the future,” he said.
Constitutional Court Decision
As previously reported, the Constitutional Court decided to remove the threshold in the requirements for nominating candidates for the presidential and vice-presidential elections.
In the previous regulation, only political parties with 20 percent of the total seats in the DPR or 25 percent of the national valid votes in the previous legislative elections could nominate presidential and vice-presidential candidates.
This decision is a request from case 62/PUU-XXII/2024, filed by Enika Maya Oktavia and fellow students of the Faculty of Sharia and Law of UIN Sunan Kalijaga.
“Granting the petition of the petitioners in its entirety,” said Chief Justice Suhartoyo in the main courtroom, MK Building, Central Jakarta, Thursday.
The Constitutional Court stated that the proposed presidential and vice presidential threshold in Article 222 of Law 7/2017 on Elections is declared contrary to the 1945 Constitution and has no binding legal force.
This means that maintaining the presidential threshold has the potential to prevent the implementation of direct presidential elections by the people by providing many choices of candidates.
“If that happens, the essential meaning of Article 6A paragraph (1) of the 1945 Constitution will be lost or at least shifted,” said Constitutional Judge Saldi Isra.
With regard to that, the Constitutional Court also proposes that the legislators in the revision of the Election Law can make constitutional engineering. Including:
All political parties participating in the election have the right to propose presidential and vice-presidential candidates.
The nomination of candidates by political parties or a coalition of political parties is not based on the percentage of the number of seats in the DPR or the national valid vote.
In proposing presidential and vice-presidential candidates, political parties participating in the election may join as long as the combination of political parties does not lead to the dominance of political parties or a coalition of political parties that causes limited presidential and vice-presidential candidates and limited voter choices.
Political parties participating in the election that do not propose presidential and vice-presidential candidates are subject to sanctions prohibiting them from participating in the next election period.
Finally, the formulation of the intended constitutional engineering, including the amendment of Law 7/2017, involves the participation of all parties who have an interest in election organizers, including political parties that do not get seats in the DPR by applying the principle of meaningful public participation.
“It has turned out that the provisions of Article 222 of Law 7/2017 are not in line with the principles of equality in law and government, the right to fight for themselves collectively, and fair legal certainty,” Saldi said.
This article has been published on Tribunnews.com with the title “MK Abolishes Presidential Threshold, Perludem: Phenomenal, Long-awaited”, https://www.tribunnews.com/nasional/2025/01/02/mk-hapus-presidential-threshold-perludem-fenomenal-sudah-dinanti-cukup-panjang.