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Court shatters young politicians' hopes to run in regional elections before 30
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Indonesia Solidarity Party (PSI) executive board chairperson Tsamara Amany (left) and PSI secretary-general Raja Juli Antoni (center) speak with Secretary of the Russian Ambassador to Indonesia Sergey Drobyshevskiy at the PSI headquarters in Jakarta on April 11, 2018. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
Y
oung politicians hoping to compete in the 2020 and 2022 regional elections will not have the opportunity to do so as the Constitutional Court rejected on Wednesday a petition challenging age requirements in the 2016 law on regional elections.
The judicial review petition, which demanded the court to lower the age requirement to 21 years old for candidates of regional races – was filed by Indonesia Solidarity Party (PSI) members Faldo Maldini, Tsamara Amany and Dara Adinda Kesuma and Indonesian Justice and Unity Party (PKPI) politician Cakra Yudi Putra.
They challenged Article 7 of the 2016 law, which stipulates that candidates running for gubernatorial and deputy gubernatorial seats should be no less than 30 years old, while those eyeing the position of mayor, deputy mayor, regent or deputy regent should be at least 25 years old.
The Constitutional Court ruled that the age limit did not violate the 1945 Constitution.
"We reject the plaintiffs' requests," chief justice Anwar Usman said in a ruling on Wednesday.
The nine-panel bench rejected the young politicians' claim that the current age limit violated their political rights and was "legally baseless".
The age requirement for regional leadership seats as stipulated in the law fell under the authority of lawmakers and the government, the court said.
Faldo, who is currently 29 years old, was reportedly planning to run in the West Sumatra gubernatorial race next year. However, the former National Mandate Party (PAN) politician turns 30 on July 9, 2020, one day after the cutoff date for eligibility on July 8.
Meanwhile, Tsamara, who is currently 23 years old, was hoping to run in the Jakarta gubernatorial race in 2022, the year she turns 26. (ggq)
