Coalition Map Begins to Unravel

Political parties and election organizers must work harder to finalize factual verification for the 2019 elections.

Kompas/Lasti Kurnia

A scene at a hearing presided over by Constitutional Court chief justice Arief Hidayat, settling a judicial review on the presidential threshold at the Constitutional Court in Jakarta on Thursday. The court rejected the judicial review of Article 222 of Law No. 7/2017 on General Elections, which regulates the matter of presidential threshold and states that the article is not at odds with the 1945 Constitution.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — The General Elections Commission (KPU) will consult the House of Representatives to discuss the possibility of extending the deadline for authorizing the 2019 election contestants, which is 14 months before the voting day or Feb. 17, 2018. The KPU needs an extension because it now has to factually verify all 12 political parties that contested the 2014 election by visiting all the regions. Voting day, however, remains April 17, 2019.

The KPU planned the move after the Constitutional Court (MK), at a hearing led by chief justice Arief Hidayat in Jakarta on Thursday, revoked the phrase “which has been authorized” in Article 173 Verse 1 and ruled that Article 173 Verse 3 of Law No 7/2017 on Elections contradicted the 1945 Constitution that it was not legally binding.