Term limit for regents stays

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Wed, 05/07/2008 9:39 AM  |  National

The Constitutional Court has rejected a request to review the regional administration law, which restricts anyone from serving as a regent for more than two five-year terms.

The panel of judges said in Tuesday's verdict the term limit in Law No. 32/2004 did not run counter to the Constitution.

"The restriction is needed to uphold the principles of democracy and control of power, which are in line with the spirit of the 1945 Constitution," the judges said in the verdict read out by judge H.A.S Natabaya.

The ruling prevents Mamasa Regent Said Saggaf's bid for reelection.

The court's verdict is uncontested and legally binding.

Said challenged the law on the grounds it denied his constitutional right to contest a regional election.

He filed for the judicial review after the General Elections Commission (KPU) and the Home Ministry barred him from running for a second term as the regent of Mamasa, West Sulawesi, because of the term limit stipulated in the regional administration law.

Said's current term as regent will end in November this year. He also served as regent of Bantaeng in South Sulawesi from 1993 to 1998.

He said the regional administration law did not apply to him because he had not served more than one term in the same regency.

The judges said the limit was confirmed by Regulation No. 6/2005 on the election, authentication, endorsement and dismissal of regional administration heads. The regulation states that regional elections are open only to candidates who have never taken office or who have been in power only once in any seat in the country.

The Constitution itself states that in exercising their rights and freedoms, citizens are subject to legal restrictions, the judges said in their ruling.

The judges said they had not found the regional administration law discriminated against Said, but that the limit applied equally to everyone.

If Said believed the state institutions had obstructed his bid to contest the regional election, he could file a lawsuit against the KPU and the Home Ministry in the State Administrative Court, they said.

Said's lawyer Jamaluddin Rustam said his client would need time to consider further legal action. (alf)

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