Ayolah - A confounding court ruling in Jakarta
"Weird, awkward and suspicious" delay in elections on the cards?
Hello friends!
I’m keen to keep Ayolah as a fortnightly dispatch for the next few months but these are extenuating circumstances.
See you next Monday for another update,
Erin Cook
On Thursday, a district court in Jakarta ruled in favour of a brand new minor party and ordered a delay in next year’s elections. Yeah. Big!
The party, the People’s Justice Prosperous Party (Prima), had failed the verification process last year — and therefore is unable to contest the elections — and argued to the court the process had been thwarted by busted electoral commission software. Rather than ruling in favour of, say, repeating the process for this party the court instead found ALL processes must begin again.
I’m still confused and Reuters noted on Thursday: “It was not immediately clear why the court ordered all election processes to stop.”
PDI-P, the country’s largest and President Joko Widodo’s home, noted that a ruling in the Constitutional Court on Tuesday laid to rest any ‘third-period’ arguments as unconstitutional and maintaining the two-term maximum. Any delay would effectively create a third term for the incumbent, the party argued as reported in the Reuters piece.
In a rare feat, seemingly everyone is unhappy with this odd ruling. Electoral body KPU has promised to continue preparations as the inevitable appeals work through the system. It’s “weird, awkward and suspicious,” Titi Anggraini of election watchdog Perludem told Reuters.
Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Mohamad Mahfud MD went immediately into battle mode. “A district court has no authority to issue such a ruling,” he said in a public statement on his Instagram. “The ruling is wrong, and the logic is so simple it can be easily overturned, but still, the verdict may stir controversy and disrupt our concentration. Some may politicise the issue as if the verdict was legitimate,” he wrote, as per Jakarta Globe.
“The PDI-P remains resolute in its decision to abide by the Constitution and support the KPU to hold elections as scheduled. That's why Ibu Megawati calls on the KPU to carry on implementing the election agenda,” PDI-P secretary-general Hasto Kristiyanto said in a statement, as reported by Jakarta Post.
You know what, these judges better come explain this to us, said the Judicial Commission. “If there are strong suspicions that there was a foul play from the part of the judges, then the commission will probe said judges,” Judicial Commission spokesperson Miko Ginting said, ℅ Reuters.
It’s very unlikely that this will hold. Given the anger of civil society groups, lawmakers and the judicial body itself an appeal will near certainly see this decision turfed. “If the discourse comes back to the surface, it will create more uncertainties around the elections,” CSIS political analyst Arya Fernandes told the Jakarta Post. In Indonesia’s first enormous everything-on-the-table elections it’s already hard work for the KPU, the supervisory board Bawaslu, and the broader community. This “weird” ruling is an outlier that cannot be afforded entertainment. Updates to come, I’m sure!