T

he Constitutional Court (MK) upheld a ban on Wednesday on active members of the Indonesian Military (TNI) and National Police from voting in future presidential elections.

The court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, who were concerned that the Presidential Election Law could be misinterpreted as it did not specifically bar such personnel from voting in the poll.

TNI and police personnel have long been banned from using their voting rights, however, Article 260 of the 2008 Presidential Election Law only barred them from voting in the 2009 presidential election.

The plaintiffs, former National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) chairman Ifdhal Kasim and a public lawyer from the Indonesian Institute for Constitutional Democracy (IICD) Supriyadi W. Eddyono, said in their judicial review request that the law had failed to provide legal certainty for men and women in uniform, unlike the 2012 Legislative Election Law, which specifically banned them from voting.

The court'€™s panel of justices ruled the mechanism barring TNI and police personnel from voting must also be imposed in the 2014 presidential election as they concluded that the two institutions had '€œvery strategic roles'€ and therefore '€œtheir neutrality in politics must be guaranteed'€.

In its consideration, the bench also supported the government'€™s argument '€” presented by Mualimin Abdi of the Law and Human Rights Ministry in a hearing session in late April '€” that such a prohibition was the right move given that there were a number of former generals now involved in politics. .

'€œIn addition, according to the President, the military and police'€™s neutrality is crucial to avoid internal conflict within the military and the police given that presidential candidates and political party leaders may come from the military or the police, either those who have resigned or retired,'€ justice Patrialis Akbar said.

Prabowo Subianto, a presidential candidate from the Gerindra Party-led coalition, is a former commander of the Army'€™s Special Forces (Kopassus).

Prabowo is one of four former generals leading a political party or serving as a patron.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who is a former TNI chief of territorial affairs, chairs the ruling Democratic Party, while former TNI commander Wiranto is the chairman of the Hanura Party and former Jakarta military commander Sutiyoso leads the Indonesian Justice and Unity Party (PKPI).

The government also referred to the 2004 TNI Law and the 2002 National Police Law that order military and police personnel to remain neutral in electoral politics.

Earlier this year, TNI chief Gen. Moeldoko called on the government to issue a regulation-in-lieu-of-law, or Perppu, to guarantee military personnel'€™s neutrality in the July poll.

Security personnel did cast their ballots in the 1955 legislative election, but under the New Order regime, the TNI and the police were banned from voting. However, they were given seats at the House of Representatives and the People'€™s Consultative Assembly (MPR).

The loyalty of the military wing was squarely for then president Soeharto and his ruling Golkar Party. The TNI and National Police wing was separated following the downfall of the New Order regime.

Responding to the court'€™s Wednesday ruling, rights activist and lawyer Wahyudi Djafar, who represented the plaintiffs, said that lawmakers should now consider whether the military had completed reform before allowing them to vote in the future.