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Rights group claims voting rights for married children incentivizes child marriage, files legal petition
On Tuesday, the KPI and Perludem filed an unprecedented judicial review petition to challenge Article 1 (6) of Law No. 8/2015 on regional elections, which permits children below the age of 17 to vote if they are married.
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Officials prepare polling booths at PGRI High School in Mamuju, West Sulawesi, on Feb. 15, 2017. Simultaneous regional elections are scheduled for Sept. 29, 2020, during which the heads of 270 regions will be elected, comprising nine governors, 224 regents and 37 mayors. (The Jakarta Post/Andi Hajramurni)
Throughout the world, the right to vote is most commonly granted to people once they hit 18 years of age. In Indonesia the voting age is 17. However, people under 17 are also given the right to vote if they are married.
Activists are calling for an end to this stipulation ahead of the 2020 simultaneous regional elections amid efforts to curb child marriage.
Dian Kartikasari, secretary-general of the Indonesian Women's Coalition (KPI), a group that advocates for an end to child marriages, said children could not make informed political decisions until they reached 17 years of age, regardless of whether they were married or not.
"Giving married children the right to vote is wrong because it gives them privileges for getting married, when, in fact, they shouldn't have been married in the first place. While we are trying to curb child marriages, this could instead motivate parents or families to marry off their underage children," Dian said.
The KPI, along with the election watchdog Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem), has decided to bring the matter to the Constitutional Court.
On Tuesday, the group filed an unprecedented judicial review petition to challenge Article 1 (6) of Law No. 8/2015 on regional elections, which permits children below the age of 17 to vote if they are married.
