1Berita News – The Constitutional Court (MK) has prohibited any changes to the schedule of the Simultaneous Regional Elections (Pilkada Serentak) 2024. The MK reaffirms that the regional elections must still be held in November 2024 according to the Regional Elections Law.
This statement is reflected in the considerations of decision case number 12/PUU-XXII/2024. The MK stated this in the considerations section.
“The regional elections must be conducted according to the intended schedule consistently to avoid overlaps between crucial stages of the Simultaneous Regional Elections 2024 and the stages of the 2024 General Elections which have not been completed,” said MK judge Daniel Yusmic P. Foekh reading the decision considerations at the MK building, Jakarta, Thursday (29/2).
“Meaning, altering the intended schedule could disrupt and threaten the constitutionality of conducting the simultaneous regional elections,” he added.
The MK also stated that elected legislative candidates from the 2024 General Elections must resign if they nominate themselves as regional heads. The Court instructed the General Election Commission (KPU) to make this a requirement for candidates for regional heads in the 2024 Simultaneous Regional Elections.
Case number 12/PUU-XXII/2024 raised concerns about the participation of several politicians in both the 2024 General Elections and the 2024 Regional Elections. The petition was filed by two students from the University of Indonesia, Ahmad Alfarizy and Nur Fauzi Ramadhan.
They wanted the MK to instruct elected legislative candidates to resign from their candidacy if they wanted to run in the 2024 Regional Elections.
In the decision, the MK rejected the core of the lawsuit’s request. However, the Court included several considerations regarding the candidacy of regional heads in the considerations section.
The voting for the 2024 Simultaneous Regional Elections will be held on November 27, 2024. Although it has been set, there is an option to advance the date of the election.
Minister of Home Affairs Tito Karnavian said the acceleration of the regional elections was proposed because there would be vacancies for regional heads on January 1, 2025. There are hundreds of regional head positions from the 2020 elections whose terms will end on December 31, 2024.
“Based on this data, there is a potential for vacancies in regional head positions on January 1, 2025. If this happens, then on January 1, 2025, there will be 545 regions without definitive regional heads,” said Tito at a working meeting with Commission II in the Parliament Complex, September 20, 2023.
