January 15, 2025
JAKARTA – All eyes are on the Constitutional Court in Jakarta after its nine justices removed the nomination threshold for presidential elections, ruling in favor of a petition filed by four students from Yogyakarta that observers laud for sparking a historic improvement to the country’s political system.
In its ruling, the court removed a threshold that requires a party or coalition of parties to control 20 percent of House of Representatives seats or have won 25 percent of the popular vote in the previous legislative election to nominate its own presidential candidate.
The decision was immediately hailed by civil groups and smaller political parties as a revival for Indonesia’s democracy, restoring hope for a more competitive presidential poll in the future by giving all parties a chance to field their own candidate pair for the country’s top seats and voters more choices on the ballot.
Behind the judicial review petition against the presidential threshold were four students who are members of the student-led Constitutional Observer Community at the Sunan Kalijaga Islamic State University’s School of Sharia and Law: 22-year-olds Rizki Mayulana Syafei and Tsalis Khorul Fatna and 23-year-olds Enika Maya Oktavia and Faisal Nasirul Haq.
“We’re very surprised with the court’s decision because none of us expected our petition would be granted,” Enika told The Jakarta Post.
Their shock was justified. The court previously had heard, and rejected, more than 30 similar petitions seeking to revoke or lower the presidential threshold over the past two decades.
Some petitions were even filed by notable political figures, such as former Regional Representatives Council (DPD) speaker La Nyalla Mattalitti and legal expert Yusril Ihza Mahendra, currently the coordinating minister for law, human rights, immigration and correctional services.
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But the student’s petition was accepted by the nine-justice panel, with only two of them dissenting the decision. The seven justices agreed that each political party has the right to nominate its presidential candidate, whether it holds House seats or not.
In their petition, which they filed shortly after the 2024 presidential election, Enika and her colleagues argued that the steep threshold unfairly restricted voters’ rights and diminished the influence of smaller parties.
‘Vanguard of democracy’
The Yogyakarta-based students decided to file the petition after seeing the court ruled in 2023 in favor of another student, Surakarta University’s (UNSA) Almas Tsaqibbirru, whose judicial request was also accepted by most of the justices.
Almas, a law student at the university based in Surakarta, Central Java, wrote in his petition that he was inspired by the success of then-Surakarta mayor Gibran Rakabuming Raka, eldest son of then-president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, and that he had aspirations to become president or vice president of Indonesia.
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In a 5-4 decision, the court ruled in favor of Almas, allowing individuals under the age of 40 who had experience as elected officials to run in presidential elections. Many saw that the ruling for Almas’ petition reflected a shift in the court’s years-long stance of rejecting judicial review requests filed by members of civil society over the General Elections Law on the grounds that any change should be an open legal policy under the authority of lawmakers.
“After realizing that voters now have legal standing to file a judicial review request over the General Elections Law, we started drafting our petition,” Enika said, “arguing that the court had viewed members of civil society no longer as an object of democracy, but rather as a subject.”
The students filed their petition after the 2024 presidential election “as a proof that this is not a political petition”, but rather an “academic effort and constitutional advocacy”, Enika continued.
Enika and her colleagues have received praise from pro-democracy advocates for their efforts, and success, in paving the way for more inclusive, open and competitive presidential elections in the future.
Election law lecturer Titi Anggraini at the University of Indonesia lauded the Sunan Kalijaga students’ efforts, calling it a symbol of hope for Indonesian youth to become the “vanguard of democracy and the 1945 Constitution.”
“It exemplifies the very essence of democracy, which demands that citizens actively participate in political and state affairs,” Titi said.
“This active involvement not only prevents the government from straying arbitrarily, but also ensures that democracy remains on track and functions effectively.”