Muninggar Sri Saraswati – The legal stipulation requiring a political party to acquire a minimum number of seats in the House of Representatives before it can nominate a presidential candidate is unconstitutional, political and constitutional law experts said on Wednesday during a hearing at the Constitutional Court.

Irman Putra Sidin, a former assistant to the Constitutional Court, said the threshold prevented independent candidates or candidates from parties with less than 25 percent of the total vote in national legislative elections from running in the presidential election.

Under the stipulation, only a party or coalition of parties that wins 20 percent of the seats in the House in the legislative elections qualifies to nominate a presidential candidate. "The president should not be seen as a representative of a political party," Irman told the Constitutional Court.

The notion that a strong government need support from the House of Representatives is misleading, he said. "The House's main function is to control a president, not support him."

Bima Arya of Paramadina University said the country's presidential system of government should accommodate all independent candidates and candidates from political parties.

Kacung Maridjan, who represented the government at Wednesday's hearing, said the threshold was aimed at paring down the number of presidential candidates. "We can not afford too many candidates," he said. "Therefore, the threshold should be seen as a selection of presidential candidates prior to the election."

The presidential law has been challenged by four petitioners. Some want the court to annul the threshold, while another wants the court to allow independent candidates. The hearing will resume on Feb. 4, with a decision expected in mid-February.