Judicial review of the election bill

Judicial review of the election bill

The Justice Party at the House of Representatives plans to submit a judicial review to the Supreme Court on the recently deliberated election bill, which it claims is unfair.

The party is protesting Article 143 on the electoral threshold, which rules that a political party with less than 2 percent of the seats at the House will be excluded from the 2004 election. The Justice Party is one of the unlucky parties.

It claims the article is unfair because, on the one hand, other newly established parties which -- according to Article 7 of the election bill -- have a board of executives in at least two-thirds of the provinces in the country as well as two-thirds of the regencies or mayoralties, and at least 1,000 members or one-thousandth of the population in a regency/mayoralty, are allowed to run in the election.

Although the Justice Party can meet all the requirements laid out in Article 7, it will be excluded from the race based on the ruling in Article 143. Meanwhile, there are parties that cannot meet the requirements listed in Article 7 but they are allowed to join the election simply because they can meet those in Article 143.

These facts have prompted the Justice Party, which ran in the 2002 election, to look to the Supreme Court for justice and fairness, which it said, has been damaged.

The party wants the electoral threshold to be regulated by law.

The Justice Party's move has become the Supreme Court's challenge and we hope that the Supreme Court will play its role properly and appropriately as the 2004 election will be a very important moment for the nation.

-- Media Indonesia, Jakarta