Who Benefits from the Constitutional Court's Decision on Regional Elections?

The Constitutional Court (MK) issued Decision Number 60/PUU-XXII/2024, altering some of the rules governing regional head elections (pilkada) on Tuesday (20/8/2024).

This decision generally benefits smaller parties, as it opens opportunities for them to nominate candidates for regional heads at the provincial (governor), regency (regent), and city (mayor) levels.

Previously, based on Article 40 paragraphs (1) and (3) of Law Number 10 of 2016, candidates for regional heads could only be nominated by a party or coalition of political parties that obtained at least 20% of the DPRD seats; or obtained at least 25% of the valid votes in the relevant region.

However, this rule was challenged by the Labour Party and the Gelora Party to the MK, arguing that it prevented parties with low vote counts from nominating candidates. The MK partially granted this challenge.

"The existence of such a regulation clearly limits the fulfillment of the constitutional rights of participating political parties that have obtained valid votes in the election, even though they do not have seats in the DPRD, thus reducing the democratic value of the regional head election as mandated by Article 18 paragraph (4) of the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia," wrote the MK in its decision.

"Article 18 paragraph (4) of the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia requires such a democratic regional head election, one way of achieving this is by opening opportunities for all participating political parties that have valid votes in the election to nominate prospective candidates for regional heads, so that the public can have a variety of prospective candidates available, thus minimizing the emergence of single candidates, which, if the norm of Article 40 paragraph (3) of Law 10/2016 continues to apply, could threaten a healthy democratic process," wrote the MK.

With various considerations, the MK finally declared that Article 40 paragraphs (1) and (3) of Law Number 10 of 2016 are inconsistent with the principles of democratic elections.

The MK also changed the requirements for regional head candidates to be nominated by a party/coalition of political parties that do not have DPRD seats, and lowered the vote requirement from a minimum of 25% to a range of 6.5-10% depending on the number of permanent voter lists (DPT) in the region.

The following is the complete text of the MK's provisions regarding the requirements for nominating regional head candidates in Decision Number 60/PUU-XXII/2024:

*Political parties or coalitions of participating political parties may register candidate pairs if they meet the following requirements:*

*To nominate a gubernatorial and vice-gubernatorial candidate:*

(a) Provinces with a population on the permanent voter list of up to 2,000,000 (two million), a political party or coalition of participating political parties must obtain at least 10% (ten percent) of the valid votes in that province;
(b) Provinces with a population on the permanent voter list of more than 2,000,000 (two million) to 6,000,000 (six million), a political party or coalition of participating political parties must obtain at least 8.5% (eight and a half percent) of the valid votes in that province;
(c) Provinces with a population on the permanent voter list of more than 6,000,000 (six million) to 12,000,000 (twelve million), a political party or coalition of participating political parties must obtain at least 7.5% (seven and a half percent) of the valid votes in that province;
(d) Provinces with a population on the permanent voter list of more than 12,000,000 (twelve million), a political party or coalition of participating political parties must obtain at least 6.5% (six and a half percent) of the valid votes in that province;

*To nominate a regent and vice-regent candidate, and a mayor and vice-mayor candidate:*

(a) Regencies/cities with a population on the permanent voter list of up to 250,000 (two hundred and fifty thousand), a political party or coalition of participating political parties must obtain at least 10% (ten percent) of the valid votes in that regency/city;
(b) Regencies/cities with a population on the permanent voter list of more than 250,000 (two hundred and fifty thousand) to 500,000 (five hundred thousand), a political party or coalition of participating political parties must obtain at least 8.5% (eight and a half percent) of the valid votes in that regency/city;
(c) Regencies/cities with a population on the permanent voter list of more than 500,000 (five hundred thousand) to 1,000,000 (one million), a political party or coalition of participating political parties must obtain at least 7.5% (seven and a half percent) of the valid votes in that regency/city;
(d) Regencies/cities with a population on the permanent voter list of more than 1,000,000 (one million), a political party or coalition of participating political parties must obtain at least 6.5% (six and a half percent) of the valid votes in that regency/city.