Jimly, Mahfud and Refly Meet at Parliament to Discuss Electoral Law Bill

Indonesia’s Parliament Commission II held another public hearing on Tuesday (10 March) with three constitutional law experts to discuss revisions to Law Number 7 of 2017 regarding elections.

The three constitutional law experts present in the consultation meeting were Jimly Asshiddiqie, chairman of the Constitutional Court during 2003–2008; Mahfud MD, chairman of the Constitutional Court during 2018–2013; and constitutional law scholar Refly Harun.

“We are currently formulating a legislative strategy and we would like to first hear as many expert opinions and perspectives as possible,” said Commission II chair Rifqinizamy Karsayuda in opening the meeting.

Rifqi sought to ensure that input from experts, practitioners and civil society coalitions would be included in the problem inventory list (DIM) of the electoral law bill before it is formally discussed with the government.

Once the Electoral Law bill working committee is established, the problem inventory list will have been compiled and ready for discussion. This is particularly important given that there are 22 Constitutional Court rulings related to the electoral law.

“Including the 22 Constitutional Court rulings that granted judicial review of Law Number 7 of 2017 form an important part of this,” he said.

Rifqi hoped that the parliamentary discussion process on the electoral law bill would not take excessively long, given that input had already been gathered from many parties.

“And hopefully the process will not take too long. The working committee discussions will be well-directed based on the problem inventory list which has been enriched by input from the experts,” he said.