Desy Nurhayati and Adianto P. Simamora, Jakarta – There will be no changes to the list of political parties eligible to run in the 2009 elections, despite a recent verdict by the Constitutional Court, the General Elections Commission (KPU) has said.
The KPU had named 34 parties as eligible for the election before the court issued its verdict, and so the verdict would not have no impact, KPU chairman Abdul Hafiz Anshari said Friday after meeting with the Constitutional Court chief Jimly Asshiddiqie.
On Thursday, the court annulled Article 316(d) in the 2008 election law, which allows parties that hold seats in the House of Representatives to run in next year's polls even if they had failed to meet the electoral threshold in 2004.
The article is not legally binding and the parties' privilege of automatic qualification breaches the constitution, the court said.
"We declared the 34 parties as election contestants on July 9 or nine months before the poll takes place, as stipulated in the election law. At that time, Article 316(d) was still legally binding as the court verdict had yet to take effect," Hafiz said. "We will not change or annul anything in our decision because it is final."
Jimly said the court verdict did not apply retroactively, and so could only take effect after it was issued. "Any laws drafted afterward have to comply with the verdict because it is final and legally binding," he said.
The privilege of automatic qualification went to the Crescent Star Party (PBB), the Reform Star Party (PBR), the Prosperous Peace Party (PDS), the National Concerned Workers' Party, the Justice and United Indonesia Party, the National Democratic United Party, the Marhaenism Indonesian National Party, the Pioneers' Party and the Indonesian Democracy Upholders Party.
The nine are among 16 parties that secured House seats in 2004, but none of them passed the electoral threshold.
A coalition of election watchdogs welcomed the court's ruling, saying it was a good lesson for the country to push lawmakers in the House to make decisions according to the Constitution rather than their political interests.
But the coalition – consisting of, among others, the Center for Electoral Reform (Cetro), Indonesian Parliamentary Center (IPC) and the Network Voter Education for People – was divided as to whether the KPU should conduct verifications of the nine parties.
"There is no need for the KPU to conduct verifications of the nine parties. Let the KPU go ahead with the next step in the elections," Cetro senior researcher Partono said.
Coordinator of the coalition, Julianto, insisted the court ruling bound the KPU to conduct both administrative and factual verifications for the nine parties. He admitted the verifications could be expensive for the state and might cause delays in the general elections.
Hafiz insisted the KPU would not conduct verifications of the nine parties.