Judicial Boldness or Democratic Necessity? The Constitutional Court's Breakthrough in Redesigning Elections
Keywords:
two-tier elections, Constitutional Court, electoral reformAbstract
The five-ballot simultaneous election model used in Indonesia’s 2019 and 2024 general elections has generated structural and technical complexities that raise constitutional concerns regarding the quality of electoral democracy. By combining the presidential election with elections for the DPR, DPD, Provincial DPRD, and Regency/Municipal DPRD on the same day, this model has been associated with administrative burdens, voter confusion, and challenges for political representation, party institutionalization, and the presidential system. In Decision No. 135/PUU-XXII/2024, the Constitutional Court declared this model unconstitutional and proposed a two-tier election system separating national and regional elections by a two-year interval. This study examines and critically assesses the Constitutional Court’s constitutional reasoning in Decision No. 135/PUU-XXII/2024, with particular attention to its implications for the institutional design of Indonesia’s electoral system. Using a normative-legal method with statutory, case, and conceptual approaches, the article assesses whether the decision is constitutionally persuasive and consistent with separation of powers and legal certainty. It also considers possible criticisms, including the limits of judicial authority, judicial overreach, and transitional challenges. The analysis suggests that the two-tier election model may offer a constitutionally persuasive compromise between the effectiveness of the presidential system and the principle of popular sovereignty, although its superiority over other constitutionally feasible alternatives remains open to critical evaluation.
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