Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Markus Junianto Sihaloho, Febriamy Hutapea & Ferry Irwanto – The Constitutional Court ruled on Monday that eligible voters not on the final voters list for Wednesday's presidential election can still cast ballots if they produce valid identification.
The court's ruling was based on a request for a judicial review of the Presidential Election Law filed last month by researchers Refly Harun and Maheswara Prabandono from the Center for Electoral Reform (Centro), a nongovernmental organization.
It comes just a day after an eleventh-hour protest from candidates Jusuf Kalla and Megawati Sukarnoputri that millions of people would be turned away from polling stations
The researchers had asked the court to annul Articles 28 and 111 of the law requiring that eligible voters' names be on the final voters list, arguing that it prevented people from exercising their constitutional right to vote.
In its ruling, the court said citizens who weren't on the final voters list could show a valid identification card or their passport because "the right to vote is a human right that must not be limited by administrative procedures or regulations. The use of identification cards and passports for eligible voters who are not on the final voters list is the most secure solution."
Meanwhile, Kalla and Megawati had met on Sunday night and threatened to demand that the poll be delayed unless the General Elections Commission (KPU) fixed what they said were massive irregularities with the list.
Those irregularities, their campaign teams said, included millions of duplicate names on the voters list and the absence of at least five million eligible voters from the rolls. KPU officials balked, saying the candidates had not produced any evidence for their claims.
The Constitutional Court said the KPU was obliged to abide by its ruling because the commission had no authority to issue regulations concerning the use of identification cards in lieu of names appearing on the final voters list.
KPU Chairman Abdul Hafiz Anshary affirmed that the commission would abide by the ruling, saying that it was "discussing the technical methods in allowing people to use their identity cards. We hope that people will have original and proper documents."
One caveat to the ruling is that voters using ID cards can only cast ballots at polling stations near their official residential address stated on the card. They must also submit their family card at the polling station along with their ID card.
Another problem is that the KPU, less than 48 hours before the election, still hasn't made the final voters list public, sparking allegations that it isn't being transparent. The KPU only announced last month that it was updating the voters list, which resulted in a total of 176.4 million voters, an increase of five million from the April 9 legislative elections.
Still, Kalla and Megawati's campaigns welcomed the court's ruling, issued shortly after 5 p.m. on Monday, saying it would boost the election's credibility. The respective camps complained for weeks about the voters list, which was also a contentious issue during and after the April polls.
The National Commission on Human Rights has been looking into claims from NGOs and academics that up to 20 million people were left off the original list used for the April legislative elections.
The beleaguered KPU extended revision deadlines for the presidential election voters list amid complaints and strong public doubts about its accuracy.
Incumbent President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who is leading in virtually all opinion polls, said on Monday night he supported the court's decision.
"This is a good solution... because I myself want a fair and clean presidential election, not like in 2004, when many things went wrong," Yudhoyono said, referring to alleged misconduct by the Armed Forces and National Police in the last presidential poll.
On Monday morning, Kalla and Megawati visited KPU headquarters and conveyed an official complaint about the voters list during a closed-door meeting that lasted nearly two hours.