Jakarta, IO – The Constitutional Court (MK) decided to reject the lawsuit demanding a judicial review of Law 7/2017 in favour of closed-list proportional representation system, per CNNIndonesia, Thursday (15/6).
Constitutional judge Sadil Isra argued that improvement and refinement of election process can be carried out in various aspects without changing the system.
“It can start from party membership, political culture, awareness and behavior of voters, to rights and freedom of expression,” said Sadil.
The decision was not unanimous as one of the judges, Arief Hidayat, gave a dissenting opinion.
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The request for judicial review was submitted on November 14, 2022 by five members of the public who objected to the open-list electoral system, namely Demas Brian Wicaksono (administrator of PDI-P Banyuwangi division), Yuwono Pintadi, Fahrurrozi (legislative candidate nominee), Ibnu Rachman Jaya (resident of Jagakarsa, South Jakarta), Riyanto (resident of Pekalongan) and Nono Marijono (resident of Depok).
In a closed-list system, voters cast vote for the political parties, not the candidates. This means that parties have full control over who they will pick to sit in parliament. (at)