Indonesia’s top court rules to bar parties that breach 30% gender quota from legislative polls

JAKARTA - Indonesia’s Constitutional Court ruled on May 25 that political parties that failed to meet the minimum 30 per cent quota for female candidates could be disqualified from participating in legislative elections.

In a unanimous decision welcomed by the General Elections Commission (KPU) as well as political parties, the court stated that parties contesting legislative elections at either the regional or national level must adhere to the quota or be removed from the race by the KPU.

Coming just under three years before the next legislative election in 2029, the court ruled in favour of university students who petitioned for a review of a provision in the General Elections Law that mandates the quota without stipulating sanctions for violations.

“The court holds that the absence of sanctions (in the elections law) has allowed the KPU at all levels to approve candidate lists that failed to meet the minimum 30 per cent quota for female candidates (in past elections),” Justice Adies Kadir said while reading out the decision.

The nine justices of the court found “this provision (to be) “unconstitutional”, he added.

In their petition, the students pointed to the 2024 elections for the legislative councils of Tulungagung and Trenggalek regencies in East Java.

They argued that the KPU could only issue warnings to political parties that did not meet the quota during the candidate registration phase, but that the parties were otherwise allowed to proceed in these polls.

The petitioners also presented data showing that of the 18 parties that contested the 2024 election for the House of Representatives, only the medium-sized Prosperous Justice Party had fulfilled the gender quota in all 84 electoral districts nationwide.

According to their data, the worse violators were the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the biggest party in the national legislature, as well as the National Awakening Party (PKB) and the Democratic Party, both midsize parties, which failed to meet the quota in 24 to 29 electoral districts.

KPU commissioner Idham Kholik said on May 27 that the agency would implement the ruling once it was legislated in the upcoming revision to the General Elections Law.

House Deputy Speaker Sufmi Dasco Ahmad, who hails from President Prabowo Subianto ’s Gerindra Party, said on May 26 that the new Bill would accommodate the ruling, remarking that “the Constitutional Court’s decision is final and binding”, Antara reported.

He added that many capable women could fill legislative seats.

Political parties in the current House also welcomed the ruling.

“We have female members at every level of the party structure and have consistently sought to fulfill the 30 per cent quota,” PDI-P executive and lawmaker Andreas Hugo Pareira said on May 26. The requirement would not be difficult to meet, Mr Andreas said, although he noted that recruiting women candidates remained challenging in regions where men traditionally dominated politics.

Also on May 26, PKB executive and lawmaker Nihayatul Wafiroh said in a statement that the party had “upheld the spirit” of women’s representation in every election.

Mr Haykal, a researcher from the Association for Elections and Democracy, expressed the hope that stipulating sanctions for violators would deter parties from circumventing the gender quota, which undermined efforts to push for more female representation in the national and regional legislatures.

“Meaningful fulfillment of the quota will depend on whether political parties genuinely recruit qualified female members or merely include women as a formality,” he said on May 27.

In a 2024 election dispute, the Constitutional Court ordered a revote in two regencies for the Gorontalo Legislative Council, as women made up just 27 per cent of candidates from four parties: Gerindra, the PKB, the NasDem Party and the Democratic Party. THE JAKARTA POST/ASIA NEWS NETWORK