Jakarta – Arief Hidayat was re-elected as the Constitutional Court chief justice for the 2017 to 2020 period during a plenary meeting on Friday.
"In deliberations that ended with a consensus, the court has given me a mandate to continue my leadership," Arief said as quoted by kompas.com during a press conference in Jakarta on Friday.
Arief hoped all Indonesian people could guard him as he goes through his remaining term of office as a Constitutional Court justice.
The election process for the chief justice held in the court's deliberation room began at about 8 a.m. and ended at 11:15 a.m. The election was conducted in a closed meeting attended only by Constitutional Court judges.
"Although it ran for almost three hours, the new justice could be elected through deliberations ending with a consensus so there was no need to hold an open voting as what happened in previous elections," said Arief.
Arief served as the court's chief justice from 2015 to 2017 and he was to have retired in April 2018.
Watchdog institutions in Indonesia had voiced objections to his possible re-election, one of which was because of his upcoming retirement.
They also claimed Arief had failed to lead the Constitutional Court adequately during his two-and-a-half year tenure, during which he was accused of having breached the court's ethical codes in 2015.
He also allegedly ruled on a judicial review requested by a graft convict in Probolinggo, East Java, in favour of the petitioner, which subsequently allowed the convicted candidate to participate in the simultaneous regional elections in the regency last year. (yon/ebf)