In what appears to be a move to restore confidence in the Constitutional Court (MK) following the recent arrest of justice Patrialis Akbar for bribery, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has said that members of the public could have a hand in choosing candidates for his replacement.

Patrialis was the second court justice allegedly caught accepting cash in the past three years after the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) first revealed the dirty practices of then chief justice Akil Mochtar in October 2013.

Jokowi seemed to wish to channel public anger about Patrialis, a former law minister and lawmaker, who was chosen by former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Patrialis’ appointment in 2013 was criticized by many judicial reform advocates because he was a politician from the National Mandate Party (PAN).

Their criticism fell on deaf ears after Yudhoyono insisted on appointing Patrialis as a justice, Yudhoyono’s relative by marriage Hatta Rajasa was PAN chairman at the time.

The government could insist on Patrialis’ appointment as it is within the government’s remit to appoint court justices, as mandated by the Constitutional Court Law.

Other institutions that also have the right to appoint justices are the House of Representatives and the Supreme Court

Jokowi said on Monday that the public could participate in a selection process to be held by the government to pick a successor for Patrialis, even though it is within his discretion to pick Patrialis’ replacement.

He said the government would carry out an open-recruitment procedure by establishing a selection team to do the job. This process will allow members of the public to provide input to the government. “The open-selection process could produce a new justice with greater integrity,” said Jokowi at the State Palace.

The antigraft body arrested Patrialis last week for allegedly accepting S$200,000 (US$140,000)in exchange for a favorable ruling on a judicial review case centering on the Cattle and Husbandry Law.

Jokowi did not elaborate further as to when the selection team would be established. “We will do it after I receive comprehensive reports [about the case implicating Patrialis],” Jokowi said.

Should Jokowi hold an open-selection process to find Patrialis’ replacement, then it will be the second time that his administration has carried out such a transparent process.

Jokowi first held an open-selection process to pick a successor for retiring MK chief Hamdan Zoelva in January 2015. The selection team later picked I Gede Dewa Palguna to replace Hamdan as a justice, while Arief Hidayat was elected new chief justice.

Not only did it collect input from members of the public, the selection team also asked the KPK and the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (PPATK) to do background checks on Palguna. The two bodies found no evidence that could implicate Palguna in graft or money-laundering charges.

Meanwhile, Patrialis tendered his resignation on Monday, in a move that will speed up the process of finding a replacement for Patrialis, whose dismissal initially depended on whether a five-member ethics panel found him guilty of an ethics breach.

Patrialis was among three justices representing the government, among a total of nine justices in the court.

Arief said the court would soon ask Jokowi to name a new justice so that all nine justices would be on board ready for any disputes resulting from the concurrent regional elections on Feb. 15.

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