Jakarta – As many as 303 academics have submitted an amicus curiae or friends of the court brief with the Constitutional Court (MK) so that it will rule fairly and justly on election disputes in the 2024 presidential election.
The academics sent an official study document to the eight Constitutional Court justices that are handling presidential election disputes. They hope that the study will be considered by the judges in making future rulings.
"There are 303 academics and civil society figures who have sent a amicus curiae, indicating that we want to be friends of the court to be able to tell them that we are behind the judges", said University of Indonesia (UI) Professor Sulistyowati Irianto at the Constitutional Court building in Jakarta on Thursday March 28.
Broadly speaking, the amicus curiae that was submitted contains a study of Constitutional Court ruling Number 90/PUU-XXI/2023, which opened the way for President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's son Gibran Rakabuming Raka to nominate himself as a vice presidential candidate in the 2024 presidential election.
The academics also discussed the ethics violations committed by the Constitutional Court justices in the ruling and included an analysis of the General Elections Commission's (KPU) error in interpreting the ruling.
They are of the view that the error by the KPU means that the acceptance of the presidential ticket of Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto and Rakabuming Raka is null and void in legal terms.
"That by not fulfilling the requirements as a vice presidential candidate, it should make the Constitutional Court with all its wisdom not hesitate to declare the disqualification of the vice presidential candidate from the candidate pair number 2", read the conclusion of the amicus curiae.
Jakarta State University (UNJ) academic Ubedillah Badrun gave assurances that the 303 academics are not taking sides with any candidate pair. He said that most of the academics are state civil servants (ASN) who are not allowed to be partisan.
They also did not demand that the Constitutional Court find in favour of challenges by the two candidate pairs that lost the elections – Anies Baswedan-Muhaimin Iskandar and Ganjar Pranowo-Mahfud MD. Badrun and his colleagues desire only that the Constitutional Court act fairly.
"If then the effort imitated by the professors is used as very valuable input, we are sure that the judge will make the best decision", he said. (dhf/DAL)
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "303 Akademisi Ajukan Amicus Curiae, Minta MK Adil di Sengketa Pilpres".]
