On Monday (30/5), Sunny Ummul Firdaus, S.H., M.H. completed her doctoral studies at the Faculty of Law, Universitas Gadjah Mada (FH UGM). She earned her doctoral degree (S-3) with the distinction of Highly Satisfactory after undertaking an open dissertation defense at Building 1 of FH UGM. The lecturer from the Faculty of Law, Universitas Sebelas Maret, defended her dissertation entitled “Restrictions on Political Rights within Indonesia’s Democratic System: A Study on the Formulation of Parliamentary Threshold and Electoral Threshold.”
In her dissertation, the Chairperson of the Supervisory Committee for the 2005 Surakarta Mayor and Vice Mayor Election explained that restrictions on political rights through the parliamentary threshold mechanism in proportional electoral systems are a common practice. The magnitude of parliamentary and electoral thresholds, however, continues to change over time. According to her, the higher the threshold percentage, the greater the number of wasted votes. This condition results in many citizens’ votes remaining unrepresented, thereby conflicting with the principle of popular sovereignty as stipulated under Article 1 paragraph (2) of the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia. “Threshold provisions prioritize political sovereignty,” Sunny asserted.
To ensure the implementation of her findings, Sunny argued that members of parliament responsible for drafting legislation must understand that the principle of popular sovereignty constitutes both the primary principle and the constitutional morality principle. She further stated that the 19 circles of Indonesian customary law would be difficult to accommodate so long as political sovereignty remains superior to legal sovereignty. In addition, the Constitutional Court (MK) must exercise greater scrutiny in conducting judicial review of laws governing threshold provisions. Constitutional Court decisions have established that threshold determinations must not conflict with political rights, popular sovereignty, and rationality. “Up to this point, the Constitutional Court has not carried out a sufficiently strict assessment before justifying limitations on popular sovereignty and citizens’ constitutional rights as contained in threshold-related legislation,” Sunny added.
In the recommendations presented in her dissertation, Sunny emphasized that the roles and functions of electoral institutions must be optimized. According to her, such measures constitute a strategic effort through electoral institutions to enhance the quality of democracy in Indonesia. (Fardi)
