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Anwar Usman reelected as chief justice of Constitutional Court
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The nine justices of the Constitutional Court conduct a hearing at the body’s courtroom in Jakarta in this undated photo. (JP/Seto Wardhana)
J
ustice Anwar Usman, who is also President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's brother-in-law, was reelected on Wednesday by his peers to lead the Constitutional Court for the next five years, amid diminished public trust in the nation’s top court.
Anwar defeated his strongest rival in the race, and predecessor, Arief Hidayat, by a five-to-four vote after three rounds of voting. Arief is a two-time House appointee, who, during his tenure as chief justice, was mired in controversy and found to have committed ethics violations on two occasions.
The voting came after the bench, in a meeting held behind closed doors earlier that day, failed to reach consensus on who should become the new chief justice and deputy justice.
Anwar was appointed as a Constitutional Court justice by the Supreme Court in 2011. In 2015, he was elected as the court's deputy chief justice and was reelected for the second time in 2016.
The 66-year-old judge became the court’s chief justice in 2018. He was originally set to serve in the position until October 2020, but about a month before his term was to end, the House of Representatives revised the Constitutional Court Law to increase the term limit for its justices, automatically extending Anwar's tenure as chief justice to 2026.
In June of last year, however, the court ruled in favor of plaintiffs who challenged the latest version of Constitutional Court Law, revoking a provision that allowed chief justices to hold onto their positions for the length of their terms without being periodically reelected. The court also ordered the nine-member bench to elect a new chief justice and deputy chief justice before March 20 of this year.
