Camelia Pasandaran – The Constitutional Court has dealt a blow to legislators seeking a judicial review of a law to make it easier for them to begin impeachment proceedings against the vice president, by pointing out they were the wrong plaintiffs.

At issue is an article in the 2009 Legislative Bodies Law that stipulates the House of Representatives can only invoke its right to express an opinion if it has the support of three-quarters of legislators at a plenary session, which would be hard to come by in the Democrat-dominated House.

The plaintiffs in the review, mostly lawmakers who initiated the House inquiry into the Bank Century bailout, are seeking to invoke the right as a first step toward impeaching Vice President Boediono, who, along with Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, authorized the Rp 6.7 trillion ($743 million) rescue the House deemed unjustified.

Justice Akil Mochtar said the right in question was that of the House as a whole, and not of a handful of lawmakers. "Given that this right is an institutional one, it should be the House speaker filing the request for a judicial review, and not individual legislators," he said.

House Speaker Marzuki Alie, a Democrat and supporter of the bailout, said no legislator involved in passing the law should now challenge it.

The plaintiffs based their call for a review on the 1945 Constitution, which stipulates the House needs the support of two-thirds, not three-quarters, of legislators at a plenary session to push through the right to express an opinion.

The plaintiffs' lawyer, Maqdir Ismail, said they were challenging the newer law because of its requirement of such a high majority vote.

The House's current makeup would void any talk of the right under the law, given that the Democratic Party controls 26 percent of House seats, in addition to those held by coalition partners the National Awakening Party (PKB) and the National Mandate Party (PAN).

"We'll never reach the quorum under the existing law," Maqdir said. "If the Democrats or any of their partners opt out of the plenary, we'll never get the 75 percent. We will think of a way to revise it."

The key plaintiffs include Lily Wahid from the National Awakening Party, Bambang Soesatyo from Golkar and Akbar Faizal of the People's Conscience Party (Hanura), who were among the nine lawmakers who initiated the House probe into the controversial bailout.

They are also among the proponents of a petition in the House to invoke the right to express an opinion, which has divided legislators, including within Golkar.

House Deputy Speaker Priyo Budi Santoso, from Golkar, on Tuesday called on fellow legislators to stop, or at least delay, the call to invoke the right.

"Let the monitoring body do its work in ensuring the House's recommendations are properly implemented by the government and law-enforcement agencies," he said.

He was referring to the 30-member monitoring team launched on Tuesday to oversee the criminal investigations into the Century bailout.

Golkar faction chairman Ade Komaruddin said his party would only support the right if the Constitutional Court reduced the requirement to two-thirds.