Yanshinto Sembiring & Pamudji Slamet – The Constitutional Court on Wednesday ruled that the all political parties that plan to register for the 2014 election should be verified by the General Election Commission.

"All political parties should be required to have verification – both existing parties that have or don't have seats in parliament as well as new parties, for the sake of justice," Mahfud MD, chief of the Constitutional Court, said on Wednesday.

Judge Fadlil Sumadi said that article 8 of the 2012 Law on Legislative Elections has been annulled by the court due to its applying different requirements for different political parties joining the election.

"It is not fair if political parties that participated in the 2009 election do not need to be verified again for the 2014 election if new political parties are obliged to do so," Fadlil said. "At the same time, political parties that do not meet the parliamentary threshold should need heavier requirements."

Article 8 of the law stated that verification was mandatory for both political parties that did not pass the parliamentary threshold in the previous election and for new parties, as well.

Besides ruling that all parties need verification, the Constitutional Court also revised article 208 of the law regarding the parliamentary threshold. While the lawmakers believed that the article could be applied to legislative elections at all levels, the court deemed it would not be fair for regional elections.

The parliamentary threshold in the 2009 election was set at 2.5 percent, while for the upcoming 2014 election it is set at 3.5 percent of the total national votes. The Constitutional Court decided that the 3.5 percent parliamentary threshold should be applied to national elections only.

The requirements to join the 2014 election are quite difficult to complete. Parties must have at least 1,000 members spread throughout the country's 33 provinces. They must have at least 30 registered members in each province, and it is also necessary for them to maintain permanent offices and members in 75 percent of all districts and half of all subdistricts.

Small political parties, including Yusril Ihza Mahendra's party, the Crescent Star Party (PBB) and the Prosperous Peace Party (PDS), filed a judicial review with the court in hopes that the court would annul the requirement for verification so it would be easier for small parties to take part in the election. The court did not invalidate the verification process.

"I'm dissatisfied," former Jakarta governor and current leader of the United Justice Indonesian Party, Sutiyoso, said. "Getting verified is very difficult. I'm sure there won't be many parties that can pass the verification given the criteria."

Faction head and deputy chairman of the United Development Party Hazrul Azwar said that he was dismayed with the decision of the Constitutional Court.

"We worked day and night without feeling tired, but now [the law] has been annulled by only nine justices," Hazrul said. "We are disappointed mainly with Mahfud, Akil and Hamdan. They were lawmakers and know very well how tough it is bargaining [during deliberation]. Where is the logic of the court?"