Irawaty Wardany, Jakarta – Democracy looks certain to prevail in next year's legislative election after the Constitutional Court ruled on Tuesday that seats in the nation's legislatures would go to the candidates who secured the most votes.

The court unanimously agreed to revoke two articles in the 2008 election law concerning the way legislative seats are distributed. The annulled articles would have allowed political party leaders to handpick their close supporters to represent the parties in the national and regional legislatures, rather than the seats going to the individual candidates who win the most votes.

"The philosophical basis of every election is that it be determined by the number of votes won. Therefore, the election of legislative candidates must follow that rule, rather than the numerical order decided in advance," said the panel of judges, presided over by court chief Moh. Mahfud MD.

Factions at the House of Representatives endorsed the election bill in March of this year. Under the law, legislative seats are distributed first to candidates who secure at least 30 percent of the original vote. The rest of the seats are then allocated according to the list of permanent legislative candidates submitted by the political parties.

Four legislative candidates from the Indonesian Democratic Party for Struggle (PDI-P) filed for a judicial review of the law, on the grounds the system was unfair.

The court said the law breached the principles of representative democracy and failed to respect voters' choices.

"Given that Indonesia adopts a system of direct election for the president and vice president, it will be fair if members of the House of Representatives and Regional Representatives Council are those who are directly elected by the people," the court said.

Chairman of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), Tifatul Sembiring, welcomed the court's ruling, which he said was in line with his party's policy.

"We were one of the parties that proposed the election of candidates based on the number of votes gained, but the major parties rejected it," he said. "The new election system will force candidates to work hard to woo voters."

Tifatul said the Muslim-based party would have no difficulty adjusting to the court ruling. "However, we will wait for the General Elections Commission (KPU) to implement the new policy and draft operational regulations," he said.

Golkar Party deputy chairman Firman Subagyo said the court's ruling came at the right time as the 2009 legislative election drew closer.

"This will only strengthen Golkar's strategy since we have adopted this election (system) internally in response to unfairness felt by our legislative candidates," he said. He said most of the incumbent legislative members, including those from Golkar, were more the representatives of their political parties than of the people.

"People used to choose legislative candidates through their parties, but with this ruling, people will select (individual) candidates of their own choice," he said.

Golkar introduced the popular vote mechanism, but suspended it after the KPU warned the policy contravened the election law.

He added that this would force political machines to become more dynamic because the system would encourage individual candidates to promote themselves to voters.