The Association for Elections and Democracy or Perludem became a relevant party in the petition for judicial review case No.114/PUU-XX/2022 which asked the Constitutional Court to change the open list proportional election system to a closed list. During the hearing to hear statements from relevant parties on Thursday (3/16), Perludem presented three arguments so that the Constitutional Court would not decide on the choice of the most constitutional electoral system.
First, Perludem considers that the discussion of the electoral system should be carried out in a participatory legislative process, because changes to the electoral system will have a broad impact on elections. There are three variables in the electoral system that will change, namely the system of nominating members of the legislature, the method of voting, and the system for determining elected candidates.
"If it is granted as requested, it means that there are no more stages to register candidates for legislative members. In the context of the implementation of the 2024 Elections, the election stages have gone very far and there are political parties that are candidates for election. Moreover, soon in early April, the political parties participating in the election will start submitting lists of candidates for legislative members who will be nominated for the 2024 Elections, " explained Perludem's legal counsel, Fadli Ramadhanil, at the Constitutional Court hearing.
Second, in an open list proportional system, political parties still have full authority in nominating members of the legislature. Without party approval, no cadres or people will be able to enter the list of candidates.
According to Perludem, in fact, the implementation of an open proportional election system encourages legislative candidates to be loyal to the two main actors in organizing elections, namely political parties as the authority that will nominate a candidate for legislative members, and voters as the main actors who will determine the elected legislative candidates.
“Even in practice in representative institutions, legislators always work according to the agendas and orders of political parties. For this reason, within a representative institution, there is something called a faction, a group of factions, whose main task and function is to unify and guide a member of the legislature in carrying out their representative duties. There is also an interim replacement mechanism that can protect political parties from a member of the legislature who works for himself," explore Fadli.
Third, Perludem reminded the Constitutional Court of the Constitutional Court Decision No. 55 of 2019. In that decision, the Constitutional Court stated that the Court could not enter into the room to decide the most constitutional choice of concurrent elections. The choice of electoral system is the domain of law-forming which cannot be determined by the Constitutional Court because it will have a major impact on the constitutional system.
However, Perludem said that the Constitutional Court could provide guidance for legislators regarding aspects of the electoral system that needed attention, so that the principles of fair and fair elections were maintained. One aspect that Perludem meant was the democratic mechanism in determining the list of candidates for legislative members.
"And parties should give priority to political party cadres who have served internally in political parties at a certain time. If the Court can explain and provide the limitations and principles that must be followed by political parties in nominating candidates for legislative members, the problem brought up by the petitioner in this case has actually been resolved, without the need to change the electoral system," Fadli asserted. []
This article is translated by Catherine Natalia.
