Jakarta, Indonesianpost.com – The Public Virtue Research Institute (PVRI), a democracy advocacy and research institution, has highlighted the impact of the Central Jakarta District Court’s ruling to postpone the 2024 elections. The decision is believed to cause young voters to lose confidence in new or alternative parties.
Miya Irawati, Executive Director of PVRI, explained that the impact could occur because the PN Jakpus verdict is a civil suit filed by the Justice and Prosperous People’s Party (Prima), a new party that demanded that the Indonesian General Election Commission (KPU RI) be punished to stop the remaining stages of the 2024 Elections and repeat all stages from the beginning.
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Miya said the verdict clearly contradicts the constitution, which mandates that elections be held every five years. Thus, Prima and PN Jakpus have taken the rights of 204 million prospective voters who intended to cast their votes in 2024.
The majority of these potential voters are young people aged 17-39 years old. They make up more than 100 million people or around 60% of all potential voters. These young voters are believed to express their disappointment with the election delay by refusing to vote for Prima. They may also be unwilling to vote for other new parties.
“Therefore, what Prima did by intentionally delaying the 2024 elections through its demands at PN Jakpus makes the public, especially young people, become apathetic, become unfaithful to small parties or alternative parties,” said Miya at a press conference responding to PN Jakpus’s decision on Sunday (5/3/2023).
According to her, the reluctance of young voters would ultimately make Indonesia’s political landscape stagnant. This is because the majority of new voters do not want to vote for alternative parties, so old parties will once again dominate the election.
Meanwhile, Prima said that its lawsuit against PN Jakpus was not something done suddenly. After being declared ineligible to participate in 2024, Prima filed a lawsuit against Bawaslu and twice to the State Administrative Court (PTUN). However, they always lost.
Read also: Jakarta Central District Court Orders Election Postponement!
Feeling that they did not get justice for KPU’s decision, which stated that Prima did not meet administrative requirements, Prima finally filed a lawsuit for Illegal Acts (PMH) against PN Jakpus. The defendant is KPU RI.
In its verdict, the panel of judges stated that KPU RI committed PMH. The panel of judges sentenced KPU RI to stop the 2024 Elections stages and repeat the election stages from the beginning within 2 years, 4 months, and 7 days since the verdict was read. This means that the election, which was originally scheduled for January 14, 2024, is postponed to July 2025.
Agus Jabo Priyono, Chairman of Prima, said that they did ask PN Jakpus to punish KPU RI to stop the 2024 Elections’ stages and repeat all stages from the beginning. Because only by repeating the election stages can their party follow the verification process again, so that they can become a participating political party in the election.
“How can we participate in the 2024 Elections? Only by repeating the election stages,” said Jabo at a press conference at the Prima DPP office, in Jakarta, on Friday (3/3/2023). This former ’98 activist asked all parties to respect the PN Jakpus’s decision.
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Meanwhile, KPU RI stated that it would appeal to the higher court. Regarding the order to repeat or postpone the elections, KPU RI will not carry it out.
The Indonesian General Elections Commission (KPU RI) firmly stated that it will continue to carry out the stages of the 2024 Elections based on the legal foundation of KPU Regulation Number 33 of 2022 concerning the Stages and Schedule of the 2024 Elections. This is because the policy has not been annulled by the decision of the Central Jakarta District Court.