Jakarta, Legal Literacy — The Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs, Hadi Tjahjanto, emphasized that the government will adhere to the Constitutional Court's Decision regarding the simultaneous regional head elections (pilkada) which have been set for November 2024. The government respects this decision and will implement it fully. Hadi stated this after meeting with the Indonesian Ulema Council in Jakarta on Tuesday (5/3/2024).
When asked further, Hadi reaffirmed that the government will obey and implement the Constitutional Court's decision. Regarding the implementation of the regional elections, November 27, 2024, has been determined as the date. The government respects this decision and will implement it. Kastorius Sinaga, a Special Staff at the Ministry of Home Affairs, explained that the Constitutional Court's decision automatically cancels the House of Representatives' proposal to accelerate the 2024 Simultaneous Regional Elections to September 2024. This is because the Constitutional Court's decision stipulates that the regional elections must still be held in November to avoid clashes between crucial stages of the regional elections and the 2024 General Election, which is not yet complete.
"That's correct. The discourse, ideas, or plans to accelerate the regional elections are automatically nullified according to the Constitutional Court's decision Number 12/PPU-XXI/2024 mentioned above," said Kastorius as quoted Kompas.com (1/3/2024) then.
Kastorius revealed that the decision of the Constitutional Court (MK) is definitive and binding. Thus, the Ministry of Home Affairs is required to respect the decision.
"There are no other legal remedies for this Constitutional Court decision. Thus, the scenario for the timing of the regional elections is in accordance with Law Number 10 of 2016 Article 201 Paragraph (8), which is in November 2024," said Kastorius.
Herman N Suparman, Executive Director of the Regional Autonomy Implementation Monitoring Committee (KPPOD), stated that observing the developments in the process of calculating the results of the presidential election (pilpres) and legislative election (pileg) currently, there are still remnants of problems, such as irregularities in Sirekap and various other technical obstacles faced by the General Election Commission (KPU). Therefore, according to him, the decision of the Constitutional Court (MK) to keep the regional elections scheduled for November is the right step.
"If it is forced to remain in September, it will disrupt the preparations of the KPU and the KPU ranks below it, of course. We do not want the regional election stage process to be rushed, which will later sacrifice the regional election process," explained Herman.
He added that in addition to the Constitutional Court's decision Number 12/PUU-XXII/2024, the Constitutional Court is currently also handling lawsuits from several regional heads who were elected in the 2020 Simultaneous Regional Head Elections and inaugurated in 2021. They filed lawsuits related to their regional head terms to the Constitutional Court. In their demands, they hope that their terms of office will last according to the established schedule. In other words, if the lawsuit is accepted, there will be several regional heads who will serve until 2025 or even 2026.
"This means that there is still a wait and see regarding the next Constitutional Court decision. However, because it has been conveyed by the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs that the regional elections will remain in November, hopefully the KPU (General Elections Commission) can truly prepare thoroughly so that the regional elections can be good in terms of both the system and the election process," Herman said.
We want to ensure that the regional head election stage process is not accelerated improperly, which could result in disruption to the election process itself. Previously, the Constitutional Court had affirmed in the considerations of decision Number 12/PUU-XXII/2024 that changing the schedule for implementing regional head elections could disrupt and endanger the conformity with the constitution of the simultaneous regional head election implementation.
"Changing the intended schedule could disrupt and threaten the constitutionality of the simultaneous regional head election implementation," said Constitutional Justice Daniel Yusmic P Foekh when reading the considerations of decision Number 12/PUU-XXII/2024, at the Constitutional Court building, Jakarta, Thursday (29/2/2024).
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