JAKARTA — The Supreme Court has ruled that ex-corruption convicts are allowed to run for parliamentary seats. The ruling was based on the result of a judicial review. “A ruling on the judicial review has been made and the request has been fulfilled,” Supreme Court spokesman Suhadi said here on Friday.
Based on the decision, “articles being reviewed are now no longer effective”, he explained. The judges of the court viewed that the articles that caused complaints ran counter to the higher election law (Law 7/2017).
Based on the law, ex-corruption convicts are allowed to become candidates for members of the House of Representatives (DPR) or the regional legislative assembly (DPRD) so long as they would meet the requirements. “In line with the election law, an ex-corruption convict may run for parliamentary seats after serving his sentence in prison for five years,” Suhadi said.
He said the Supreme Court’s ruling also referred to the ruling of the Constitutional Court, which states that a former corruption convict could become a candidate for DPR or DPRD members by declaring his status as an ex-convict. The case filed by Wa Ode Nurhayati and KPU (election commission) was settled by three Supreme Court judges consisting of Irfan Fachrudin, Yodi Martono and Supandi.
Previously, Election Supervisory Board (Bawaslu) identified 202 lawmaker candidates have corruption case background. Bawaslu member, Fritz Edward Siregar said on Aug 1 that ex-graft prisoners registering to be lawmaker candidate came from 12 provinces, 97 regencies, and 19 cities in Indonesia.
Meanwhile, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has stated that former corruption convicts still have their rights to be elected members of legislative body. The Constitution gives them that right, the president said after closing a ceremony of Ramadhan reciting of Koranic verses held by PP Muhammadiyah at the Muhammadiyah University here on May 30.
