The Judicial Commission (KY), an external judicial oversight body, will formally protest the Supreme Court’s lighter punishment for three lower court judges who were responsible for a controversial ruling to delay the 2024 elections, at the Central Jakarta District Court.

Ignoring a June recommendation from the commission for a two-year suspension, the Supreme Court last week reassigned the three judges to district courts in Sumatra as a punishment for unprofessional conduct when trying a dispute between a newcomer party and the poll body last year.

The three lower court judges ruled in favor of the minnow Prima Party, granting it the chance to exercise its political right to contest next year’s general election and effectively postponing the ballot by two years. But the ruling was reversed by an appellate court on the grounds that the lower court judges had overstepped their jurisdiction, thus offering legal certainty for the ongoing electoral process to continue apace.

The demotion of the three judges followed the Supreme Court internal monitoring body's findings that the judges made only “technical but reversible errors” so it decided not to punish them as harshly as the Judicial Commission has recommended, Supreme Court spokesperson Suharto told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

The commission began to probe the bench for potential ethics violations in March following a report lodged by activists and several civil society groups, such as the Center for Indonesian Law and Policy Studies (PSHK), which questioned the authority of the court over election disputes.

Around the same time, the Supreme Court internal monitoring body launched its own ethics investigation into the three judges.

Read also: Activists to report district judges' ruling to delay elections as ‘ethical breach

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