TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Constitutional Court (MK) rejected the request for judicial review on the 70-year-old presidential age limit today, Monday. "Declares that the request for judicial review on Article 169 (q) of General Elections Law No. 7 of 2017 is dismissed," said MK Chief of Judge Anwar Usman during the decision hearing for case number 102/PUU-XXI/2023.

The lawsuit was submitted by Wiwit Ariyanto, Rahayu Fatika Sari, and Rio Saputro, members of the lawyers' alliance on safeguarding human rights and democracy.

The plaintiffs submitted two claims in the case. First, they ask the court to declare that Article 169 (q) is conditionally unconstitutional and not legally binding with the Constitution as long as it's not interpreted as "at least 40 years old and at most 70 years old process".

Second, the plaintiff asked MK to add the norms provided in Article 169 (d) of the General Elections Law, into "having never committed any act of treason against the state, having never committed any acts of corruption, having no record of committing human rights violations, having not involved in and/or being part of abduction of activists in 1998, having not involved in and/or being an actor of forced disappearance, having never committed any crimes of genocide, having not involved in and/or being an actor of any crimes against humanity and anti-democratic acts, and other serious crimes."

Regarding the presidential age limit, MK decided that the request had lost its object considering the court's newest decision on the presidential and vice presidential age limit decision on October 16, 2023.

Meanwhile, the court decided that adding to the provisions in Article (d) of the General Elections Law would create redundancy and narrow the norm provided in the article.

The court believed the article already had a broad meaning, to begin with including all grave criminal violations, which rendered the plaintiff's claim lacks legal reasonableness.

ANTARA | IHSAN RELIUBUN

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