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awmakers at the the House of Representatives officially approved two newly selected Constitutional Court (MK) justices '€” former official Wahiduddin Adams and law lecturer Aswanto '€” on Thursday, saying the two were qualified for the job.

Pieter Zulkifli Simaboea, who chairs House Commission III overseeing legal affairs and human rights, presented Wahiduddin and Aswanto before a House plenary meeting on Thursday and said both individuals had been voted in as the court'€™s new justices due to their quality and integrity.

'€œCommission III prioritized the quality of the candidates. We carefully assessed their integrity, vision and mission [during the selection]. Based on such criteria, Commission III thus selected and appointed the two candidates [Wahiduddin and Aswanto] as the new justices,'€ Pieter said.

Pieter, a politician from the Democratic Party (PD), said the selection of both new justices would hopefully repair the court'€™s tainted image, particularly following the arrest of former chief justice Akil Mochtar, who was arrested on bribery charges.

Both Wahiduddin and Aswanto were elected by members of Commission III in a voting session held earlier on Wednesday evening.

Wahiduddin, a former director general for legislation at the Law and Human Rights Ministry, won 46 votes from the 50 present lawmakers, who were each allowed to select two out of four names endorsed by an independent team; while Aswanto, a lecturer in the School of Law at Hasanuddin University in Makassar, won 23 votes.

Besides Wahiduddin and Aswanto, the independent team, which comprised of eight experts, also recommended Padjadjaran University lecturer Atip Latipulhayat and Ni'€™matul Huda, a lecturer in the School of Law at the Islamic University of Indonesia (UII) in Yogyakarta, from the total 11 candidates participating in the fit-and-proper test with Commission III.

The selection of both Wahiduddin and Aswanto came as a surprise because during the fit-and-proper test at Commission III from March 3 to 5, Commission III members expressed disappointment over the '€œpoor quality'€ of the candidates, saying none of them were worthy of becoming the court'€™s justices.

'€œNone of the candidates can be considered as statesmen, the type of people that we are looking for,'€ lawmaker Ahmad Yani from the United Development Party (PPP) said.

Several other members of Commission III, such as Nasir Djamil from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and Martin Hutabarat from the Gerindra Party, shared the same sentiment but changed their stance following the election of Wahiduddin and Aswanto.

Yuliandri, a professor of law at Andalas University in West Sumatra, encouraged lawmakers to reach out to quality candidates in the future instead of just waiting for applicants.

'€œThose who are actually very capable are usually reluctant to show up. Thus we need to be more active to find these people,'€ Yuliandri pointed out.