Bagus BT Saragih, Jakarta – To ensure fairness and impartiality among members of the election-organizing bodies, the Constitutional Court (MK) on Wednesday ruled that politicians can only apply for membership five years after their resignation from a political party.

The court's ruling came in answer to demands by a coalition of NGOs, which noticed some articles in the Election Organization Law were flawed.

One article in the law, which was enacted in November, says former politicians need to resign from a political party before applying for membership in the General Elections Commission (KPU) or General Elections Monitoring Body (Bawaslu).

"The articles were against the 1945 Constitution because they could jeopardize the impartiality of the KPU and Bawaslu," judge Akil Mochtar said.

Critics previously said that, without the requirement to resign five years before applying for KPU or Bawaslu, it was likely that politicians would use their ties with their former political parties to serve the parties' interests in the poll bodies.

The petitioners, which comprised 23 NGOs nationwide, also challenged an article which stipulated that members of the Election Organization Disciplinary Council include a government representative and a politician from each political party that had a seat in the House of Representatives.

The court also approved this petition with the argument that memberships of the government and political party could compromise the professionalism and impartiality of the election organization.

Hadar Nafiz Gumay, executive director of the Center of Electoral Reform (Cetro), one of the 23 NGOs, welcomed the ruling, saying the judges "have been very professional in upholding the Constitution and promoting democracy".

"The ruling has also confirmed our allegation that the lawmakers had insisted on keeping the 'problematic articles' only to satisfy their political desire instead of making a fair election mechanism," Hadar added.

The stipulation that a former political party member could not be a member of the KPU if he or she had resigned from their party less then five years before filing their application, was actually included in the old 2007 Election Organization Law.

Lawmakers, however, agreed to drop the clause under the argument that no one could guarantee that somebody who had retired from a political party five years before would no longer be affiliated with certain political groups.