6-3-2024 (JAKARTA) The Indonesian House of Representatives’ proposal to advance the upcoming regional elections has hit a potential roadblock following a Constitutional Court opinion that upheld the polls’ scheduled date in November. Lawmakers have acknowledged that this ruling could force them to abandon their plans to move the elections to an earlier date.
On Thursday (Feb 29), the Constitutional Court rejected a petition seeking to require candidates elected in the February 14 legislative election to resign from their positions if they intended to run in the upcoming regional polls. The plaintiffs had argued that such a provision was necessary to ensure a fair competition and prevent the abuse of power.
However, in one of the opinions supporting the ruling, Justice Daniel Yusmic Pancastaki Foekh asserted that the regional elections must be held in November, in accordance with the dates stipulated in the 2016 Regional Elections Law. He warned that changing the schedule could “disrupt and threaten the constitutionality of the implementation of the simultaneous regional elections.”
The court’s opinion has prompted Achmad Baidowi, the deputy chairman of the House Legislation Body (Baleg), to acknowledge that rescheduling the regional elections may no longer be feasible. “It’s not a problem if we want to revise [the Regional Elections Law], but we can’t change the schedule because we follow the Constitutional Court’s ruling,” the United Development Party (PPP) politician told reporters on Tuesday.
Baidowi stated that while the House still intends to pursue revisions to the law proposed in November of last year, it will not attempt to alter the voting day. These revisions aim to address overlapping authorities between the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) and the Voters Supervisory Committee (Panwaslih), a special election supervisory agency in Aceh.
The plan to bring forward the 2024 regional elections emerged in August of the previous year, reportedly at the behest of the Home Ministry. The ministry had argued that an earlier voting date was necessary to prevent power vacuums in local administrations, as most top regional posts would be vacant by late August 2024.
Initially, the government had planned to issue a government regulation in lieu of law (Perppu) to reschedule the regional elections. However, this plan was scrapped in favor of having the initiative originate from the House, as Communications and Information Minister Budi Arie Setiadi stated in November 2023 that this would prevent the appearance of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo having a particular interest in the bill.
Analysts have suggested that moving the regional polls two months forward could have put Jokowi in a better position to ensure the election of his preferred candidates. Nevertheless, the House proceeded with the initiative, with Baleg endorsing a revision to the Regional Elections Law during a plenary session in November 2023. The House is currently awaiting a presidential letter (Surpres) to commence deliberations on the revisions.
Khoirunnisa Nur Agustyati, executive director of the elections watchdog Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem), has urged the President and House to adhere to the Constitutional Court’s ruling and maintain the November date for the regional elections. She noted that the court’s decision was based on a General Elections Commission (KPU) regulation scheduling the polls for November, and rescheduling could disrupt the preparations and implementation of the regional elections.
Hadar Nafis Gumay, executive director of the Network for Democracy and Electoral Integrity (Netgrit), concurred with Khoirunnisa’s assessment but expressed doubt that the court’s ruling would halt the House’s plan to fast-track the regional elections. He argued that unless the court had explicitly ruled that changing the schedule would violate the Constitution, the House and government still possess the authority to reschedule the polls through legislative changes.
