Thomas Rizal, Jakarta – The Supreme Court (MA) on Wednesday granted a judicial review concerning the minimum age requirement for regional head candidates ahead of the 2024 Regional Election in November. This request was filed by Ahmad Ridha Sabana, Chairman of the Indonesian Guard of Change Party (Garuda).
"Request for judicial review granted," reads the Supreme Court's Decision Number 23/P/HUM/2024, as quoted from the Supreme Court's official website on Thursday.
With this decision, the Supreme Court declared that Article 4, paragraph (1), letter d of the General Election Commission Regulation (PKPU) Number 9 of 2020 is not in accordance with Law Number 10 of 2016 on Regional Elections.
The article in the PKPU previously stated, "A minimum age of 30 years for candidates for Governor and Deputy Governor and 25 years for candidates for Regent and Deputy Regent or candidates for Mayor and Deputy Mayor, calculated from the date of the determination of the candidate pairs."
The Supreme Court found that the article does not have binding legal force unless the minimum age is calculated from the inauguration date of the elected candidate pairs.
In its decision, the Supreme Court ordered the General Election Commission (KPU), as the respondent/defendant, to revoke the article. Therefore, the age requirement for candidates for governor and deputy governor is at least 30 years, while the age for candidates for mayor and deputy mayor or candidates for regent and deputy regent is at least 25 years, calculated from the inauguration of the elected candidate pairs, not the determination of the candidate pairs.
This decision was issued while the KPU was conducting administrative verification of support requirements for individual regional head candidate pairs. The registration process for regional head candidate pairs from political parties is scheduled for August 27-29.