Women Break Through Patriarchal Dominance in Politics Through Constitutional Court Ruling

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com — The Constitutional Court’s ruling No. 128/PUU-XXIV/2026 is seen as an affirmative action policy for women in Indonesian politics.

The Court’s ruling adds a provision allowing the General Election Commission (KPU) at all levels to disqualify political parties that fail to meet the minimum 30% female candidate requirement.

“Given that sanctions for political parties participating in elections have effectively been implemented, to ensure the spirit of Article 28H paragraph 2 of the 1945 Constitution is truly realised in the preparation of DPR/DPRD candidate lists, political parties failing to meet the minimum 30% women’s representation quota must face strict sanctions,” said MK Justice Adies Kadir while reading the Court’s reasoning on Monday, 25 May 2026.

The ruling specifically aims to reduce discrimination in the number of women’s representation in the DPR/DPRD.

“Thus, the regulation regarding candidate lists containing at least 30% women’s representation under Article 245 of Law No. 7/2017 must be interpreted and supplemented with sanctions for political parties to be disqualified, thus excluded from the election contest in constituencies that do not meet the requirement, as stated in the ruling,” Adies said.

The petitioners highlighted the absence of sanctions for not meeting the 30% women’s representation quota in submitting DPR, provincial DPRD, and regency/city DPRD candidate lists.

Article 245 of the 2017 Election Law was deemed ineffective or “Lex Imperfecta”.

“The candidate list referred to in Article 243 must contain at least 30% (thirty percent) women’s representation,” states Article 245 of the Election Law.

Even the KPU only issues administrative advisories without disqualification sanctions, as seen in Trenggalek 2, Tulungagung 6, and Tulungagung 1 constituencies where parties fielded only male candidates.

Furthermore, the petitioners argued philosophically that the 30% women’s representation rule aims to achieve justice and equality between men and women, ensuring women are active participants in policy-making.

Sociologically, women constitute a large portion of voters, yet their representation in the legislature remains low, meaning their interests are not optimally addressed.