Treason Warning: Court in Jakarta Decided to Postpone 2024 Elections

Liputan6.com, Jakarta - The court in Central Jakarta recently gave a controversial decision to postpone the general elections. The decision was taken after the new Prima Party sued the General Elections Commission (KPU) when the former did not pass the process for the 2024 election.

Next year, Indonesians will have to choose presidents, members of parliament, and regional leaders. With the new decision, the election must be postponed for at least two years.

The latest decision is inevitably inciting political uncertainty, not to mention last year there was a discourse of increasing Presiden Joko Widodo's term, although the president rejected the notion.

A senior expert at the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), Lili Romli, criticized the legal action taken by the Prima Party for violating the constitution.

"If the general election is not performed regularly for every five years, therefore it is violating the constitution. The violation of the constitution is part of treason," said Romli as quoted by the state news agency Antara on Tuesday (7/3/2023).

President Joko Widodo has encouraged the General Elections Commission to appeal the decision. 

"Indeed it is a controversy that creates pros and cons, but the government also supports KPU to appeal," said President Widodo on Monday. He added that the government has prepared to make sure the elections are going smoothly next year.

The commissioner of KPU, Mochammad Afifuddin, also confirmed that his institution will appeal this week.

The high official in the Ministry of Home Affairs strongly rejected the court's decision. The court of Central Jakarta is criticized because they actually do not have the right to change the constitution's policy about the general elections.

"The decision can be called overstepping the authority, called legally flawed and null," said Bahtiar, the Director General of Politics and General Governance in the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Consequently, KPU is advised not to hesitate to continue the process of the election next year. Bahtiar said it is not relevant whether KPU is appealing or not, because the election must go on anyway.

"Whether KPU is to appeal or not appeal, the process of elections is continuing and the organizers of elections can ignore the substance of the State Court's decision regarding the elections," said Bahtiar.

Meanwhile, the Commission II of Parliament has planned to summon KPU. The head of Commission II, Ahmad Dolu Kurnia, was wondering what happened inside KPU which led to their defeat at the court.

The Commission II deals with the country's internal administrations, including elections.

"We want to receive more complete information from KPU as the defendant," said Ahmad. "How was the process, their attitude thus far, their answers, which led to that decision, whether it was handled or not, [we] wanted to know," said he.

Hanz Jimenez Salim, Putu Merta Surya Putra, and Muhammad Radityo Priyasmoro contributed to this report.