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Meet the students behind presidential threshold removal petition
The four students of Sunan Kalijaga Islamic State University in Yogyakarta say that they decided to file a judicial review request challenging the presidential nomination threshold after seeing the Constitutional Court rule in favor of another student who petitioned for a change in presidential candidate's requirements.
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Historic ruling: Justices preside over a Constitutional Court hearing on a petition to remove the presidential nomination threshold at the court building in Jakarta on Jan. 2. The court justices ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, four students from Sunan Kalijaga Islamic State University in Yogyakarta, to remove the nomination threshold for future presidential elections. (Antara/Fauzan)
A
ll eyes are on the Constitutional Court in Jakarta after its nine justices removed the nomination threshold for presidential elections, ruling in favor of a petition filed by four students from Yogyakarta that observers laud for sparking a historic improvement to the country’s political system.
In its ruling, the court removed a threshold that requires a party or coalition of parties to control 20 percent of House of Representatives seats or have won 25 percent of the popular vote in the previous legislative election to nominate its own presidential candidate.
The decision was immediately hailed by civil groups and smaller political parties as a revival for Indonesia’s democracy, restoring hope for a more competitive presidential poll in the future by giving all parties a chance to field their own candidate pair for the country’s top seats and voters more choices on the ballot.
Behind the judicial review petition against the presidential threshold were four students who are members of the student-led Constitutional Observer Community at the Sunan Kalijaga Islamic State University’s School of Sharia and Law: 22-year-olds Rizki Mayulana Syafei and Tsalis Khorul Fatna and 23-year-olds Enika Maya Oktavia and Faisal Nasirul Haq.
“We’re very surprised with the court’s decision because none of us expected our petition would be granted,” Enika told The Jakarta Post.
Their shock was justified. The court previously had heard, and rejected, more than 30 similar petitions seeking to revoke or lower the presidential threshold over the past two decades.
Some petitions were even filed by notable political figures, such as former Regional Representatives Council (DPD) speaker La Nyalla Mattalitti and legal expert Yusril Ihza Mahendra, currently the coordinating minister for law, human rights, immigration and correctional services.
