Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – Members of the House of Representatives Commission III overseeing law and human rights have elected former official Wahiduddin Adams and law lecturer Aswanto as new Constitutional Court (MK) justices.
The commission elected the new justices after it held a vote on Wednesday evening after several commission members insinuated that the House should not elect new court justices as most of the candidates were unqualified, a decision that could risk the legitimacy of election results. The court is in charge of arbitrating election disputes.
Wahiduddin, a former director general for legislation at the Law and Human Rights Ministry, won 46 votes from the 50 lawmakers, present at the vote, who were each allowed to select two candidates, which left Aswanto, who is currently a lecturer at the school of law at Hasanuddin University in Makassar, with 23 votes.
The two newly elected justices were chosen from a final group of four candidates, who were endorsed by an independent team involved to oversee the screening that began last Monday, out of an initial group of 11 candidates.
Other candidates that were recommended by the team also included Padjadjaran University lecturer Atip Latipulhayat, who secured 19 votes, and Ni'matul Huda, a lecturer at the school of law at Islamic University of Indonesia (UII) in Yogyakarta with 12 votes.
Ni'matul was the only female candidate that participated in the screening. "As Wahiduddin and Aswanto were the two that secured the highest and second-highest number of votes, respectively, so we hereby declare that the two are officially elected [court] justices," Commission III Deputy Chairman Al Muzzammil Yusuf announced.
Muzzammil, a politician from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), said that Commission III would present the result of the vote before a House plenary session on Thursday (today).
Before the vote, antigraft expert Saldi Isra, who is among the eight experts in the team, told reporters that the team strongly encouraged Commission III to choose two out of the four names recommended although lawmakers had the right to select other candidates.
"[Of all candidates] we decided that the four we recommended were the most qualified candidates, due to their superior understanding of constitutional law compared to the others," Saldi told the press after a closed-door meeting with lawmakers.
Apart from Saldi, the independent team also included former court justices Laica Marzuki and AS Natabaya, constitutional law expert Lauddin Marsuni, former chairman of the largest Islamic organization in Indonesia (Nahdlatul Ulama) Hasyim Muzadi and former chairman of the country's second-largest Islamic organization (Muhammadiyah) Ahmad Syafii Maarif.
Two figures with political backgrounds were also in the team, namely former law and human rights minister Andi Mattalatta, who is also a former Golkar Party lawmaker, and former United Development Party (PPP) lawmaker Zain Badjeber.
The two newly appointed justices will assume control of two seats that will become vacant in the coming months. One of the seats was left vacant by former chief justice Akil Mochtar, who was arrested on bribery charges surrounding election disputes in Lebak and Gunung Mas regencies as well as several other regencies last year. Meanwhile, 65-year-old justice Harjono will retire later this month, leaving his seat vacant.
With the election of Wahiddudin and Aswanto, the court will have a complete team of nine justices, who will handle potential election disputes in the coming months as the country will hold the legislative election next month and the presidential election in July.
Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/03/06/house-elects-two-mk-justices-despite-doubts.html