JAKARTA, LEGAL LITERACY —The Constitutional Court (MK) decided to grant part of the application of the United Development Party (PPP) regarding the filling of prospective members of the Tarakan City DPRD in the Electoral District (Dapil) 1, Central Tarakan District, Tarakan City, North Kalimantan Province. In the decision, the Constitutional Court disqualified a legislative candidate from the Golkar Party, Erick Hendrawan Septian Putra, who was a former convict and had not passed the 5-year cooling-off period. The Constitutional Court also ordered a revote without the participation of Erick Hendrawan Septian Putra. This verdict was read out by the Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court, Suhartoyo, on Thursday (6/6/2024) in the Plenary Session Room, Building 1, MK Jakarta.

“Granting the Applicant's request in part, declaring Erick Hendrawan Septian Putra disqualified as a candidate for member of the Tarakan City Regional People's Representative Council for the Tarakan City Electoral District 1, ordering the General Election Commission, in casu the Tarakan City General Election Commission, to carry out a revote only for 1 (one) type of ballot paper, namely the Regional People's Representative Council Ballot Paper for the Regency/City in the election of candidates for members of the Tarakan City Regional People's Representative Council for the Tarakan City Electoral District 1 without including Erick Hendrawan Septian Putra,” said the Head of the Panel of Judges, Suhartoyo, accompanied by 8 other Constitutional Justices.

In the considerations expressed by Constitutional Justice Enny Nurbaningsih, the Court emphasized that the purpose of holding elections is to present leaders and people's representatives who are clean, honest, and have integrity and are not tarnished. To achieve this, prospective legislative members who have been convicted must have passed a period of 5 (five) years after serving their prison sentence in order to make adjustments (adaptation) in the community to prove that after serving their sentence, they have truly changed for the better and will not repeat their actions.

Therefore, according to the Court, the 5 (five) year period also provides an opportunity for voters to critically assess prospective legislative members who will be selected as good choices who have shortcomings and advantages to be known by the general public (notoir feiten). Thus, prospective legislative members who have completed their prison terms based on court decisions are required to wait or there is a cooling-off period of 5 (five) years after no longer being a convict to be able to nominate themselves as prospective legislative members.

The Court found the legal fact that Erick Hendrawan Septian Putra had not passed the 5 (five) year cooling-off period when registering as a prospective member of the Tarakan City DPRD for the Tarakan 1 Electoral District because the 5 (five) year cooling-off period only ended after May 2024. Thus, the registration process for prospective members of the Tarakan City DPRD for the Tarakan 1 Electoral District from the Related Party in the name of Erick Hendrawan Septian Putra is not in accordance with the provisions of Article 240 paragraph (1) letter g of the Election Law as interpreted by the Court through Decision Number 87/PUU-XX/2022 dated November 30, 2022 and Article 12 paragraph (1) letter b numbers 11, 12, and 13 of PKPU 10/2023.

According to the Court's consideration, prospective legislative members must still maintain the completeness of other requirements as prospective legislative members, including in this case they must honestly or openly announce their background as former convicts as regulated in the provisions of Article 240 paragraph (1) letter g of the Election Law as interpreted by the Court through Decision Number 87/PUU-XX/2022. Regarding these provisions, if it is connected with the legal facts obtained by the Court from the evidence submitted in the trial, where at the stage of submitting the candidacy requirement documents for members of the Tarakan City DPRD, Erick Hendrawan Septian Putra did not submit a document in the form of the Samarinda District Court Decision Number 207/Pid.B/2019/PN Smr dated May 23, 2019 to the Respondent as a completeness of the candidacy requirement documents.

In other words, according to the Court, Erick Hendrawan Septian Putra did not honestly or openly announce to the public his background as a former convict based on the Samarinda District Court Decision Number 207/Pid.B/2019/PN. The Court is of the opinion that Erick Hendrawan Septian Putra does not meet the requirements as a candidate for member of the Tarakan City DPRD for the Tarakan 1 Electoral District because he has been proven to have committed a criminal act punishable by imprisonment for more than 5 (five) years and has not met the provisions of the 5 (five) year cooling-off period after serving his sentence, and he did not honestly or openly announce to the public his background as a former convict. Therefore, Erick Hendrawan Septian Putra must be declared to no longer meet the requirements as a candidate for member of the Tarakan City DPRD for the Tarakan 1 Electoral District, so he must be disqualified from the election contest for members of the Tarakan City DPRD for the Tarakan 1 Electoral District of North Kalimantan Province.

Furthermore, the Court stated that the cancellation of Erick Hendrawan Septian Putra as a candidate for member of the Tarakan City DPRD for the Tarakan 1 Electoral District, while the candidate is a candidate whose votes have the potential to become one of the elected candidates, does not mean that the candidate whose votes are in the next order can automatically replace the position of the vote acquisition ranking of Erick Hendrawan Septian Putra, considering the acquisition of votes (which shows voter support) for Erick Hendrawan Septian Putra in the election of members of the Tarakan City DPRD for the Tarakan 1 Electoral District to other legislative candidates.

With this consideration, if Erick Hendrawan Septian Putra as a legislative candidate whose votes have the potential to be determined as one of the elected candidates is then disqualified, then to respect and protect the constitutional rights of voters who have cast their votes for Erick Hendrawan Septian Putra, and in order to reaffirm the legitimacy or public support for the candidate who will later be elected and become a member of the Tarakan City DPRD for the Tarakan 1 Electoral District, the Court is of the opinion that a revote must be carried out only for 1 (one) type of ballot paper, namely the DPRD Ballot Paper for the Regency/City in the election of members of the Tarakan City DPRD for the Tarakan 1 Electoral District without including Erick Hendrawan Septian Putra.