Indonesia’s Constitutional Court sided with labour union petitioners in 21 of 71 points in a legal challenge to the much-contested 2020 Job Creation Law, also known as the Omnibus law, on 1 November. The ruling will require local officials to set sectoral minimal wages, expanded employee protections when an employee is laid off, required ministries to act more directly to reduce conflicts between employers and employees, and ordered parliament to amend key parts of the law within two years or the entire law will become unconstitutional automatically. The Court had previously ruled other parts of the law unconstitutional in 2021 because lawmakers had failed to follow proper procedures during its passage through parliament.

Sources: The Diplomat, Industriall

A wave of protests across Indonesia on 22 August and sharp criticism from civil society compelled the legislature to defy the country’s Constitutional Court (CC) and revise the 2016 Regional Elections Law. The tension began on 20 August, when the CC overruled a controversial May 2024 Supreme Court decision changing the rules for the minimum age of candidates. That ruling would have allowed President Joko Widodo’s son, Kaesang Pangarep, to run for governor of Jakarta. The 20 August CC ruling also lowered the threshold for political party participation in regional polls, which would provide a more open contest between the ruling Onward Indonesia Coalition (KIM) and opposition parties. KIM MPs swiftly introduced legislation to revise the 2016 Regional Elections Law on 22 August, which was interpreted by legal experts, civil society, and the opposition as an unconstitutional effort to override the CC’s legally binding ruling. Large demonstrations followed on the same day across the country, with over 100 protesters and police reported injured and over 400 arrested. Parliament swiftly withdrew the legislation and on 25 August gave the General Elections Commission permission to reform electoral laws in line with the CC’s ruling and protester demands. Human rights organizations criticized the police response to the protests and called for an investigation into excessive violence and allegations of attacks on key organizers and journalists.

Sources: Jakarta Post, International IDEA, Human Rights Watch, Financial Times, CNN Indonesia, Reuters

The Indonesian government introduced regulations on 29 July that legalized some abortions under strict conditions as part of the implementation of a 2023 Health Law. Women whose pregnancies are a result of rape and certain medical emergencies will now be able to obtain an abortion up to 14 weeks after conception. The previous legal standard only allowed for six weeks. The country’s leading religious council, the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), sharply criticized the new regulations as contradicting its 2005 fatwa, declaring abortions can only be performed within 40 days of conception. Some gender rights activists broadly welcomed the move but criticized a provision that grants the police, rather than medical professionals, sole discretion to authorize abortions, and the lack of specific instructions for police on how to handle and process rape cases.

Sources: Reuters, Benar News, Tempo

The Supreme Court ruled on 30 May that the minimum age requirement for gubernatorial candidates applies not from when a candidate is nominated but for when they would be sworn into office. The ruling was widely interpreted as a carve-out to permit outgoing President Joko Widodo’s youngest son, Kaesang Pangarep, to run for governor of Jakarta in an election scheduled for 27 November. Kaesang will be 29 on election day but will turn 30 before he would be sworn in. In October 2023, Indonesia’s Constitutional Court made a comparable ruling that allowed Jokowi’s elder son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, to run (successfully) for vice president in the 2024 presidential election.

Sources: Jakarta Post, The Diplomat, International IDEA

Indonesia’s parliament and government have agreed on a bill that will shorten the tenure of Constitutional Court judges from 15 to 10 years, require approval from appointment authorities (the president, the Supreme Court, and parliament) every five years or be removed from office, and overhaul the court’s ethics counsel to add the president, parliamentarians and members of the Supreme Court. Some members of the court have clashed with outgoing President Joko Widodo’s administration in several high-profile occasions, most recently in a ruling over the validity of the most recent election. Legal experts warn the changes are intended to subjugate the powerful court to the legislative and executive branches and punish the three justices who dissented from a broader ruling supporting  dismissing electoral challenges in the 2024 general elections. Those three judges will be the first whose seats are up for review. Governing MPs argued the changes were politically neutral and aimed at ensuring the court’s accountability and efficacy.

Sources: Benar News, Reuters, Perludem

Indonesia held general elections on 14 February 2024 for president, vice president, both houses of parliament and local and regional offices. Final election results released on 21 March showed Minister of Defense Prabowo Subianto and his vice presidential running mate Gibran Rakabuming, the son of outgoing President Joko Widodo, won 55.5 per cent of the votes on 82.39 per cent turnout. Prabowo's PDIP won 19.33 per cent of the votes in parliament, followed by Gerindra (12.57 per cent) and Golkar (12.31 per cent). The gender makeup of the incoming parliament is not yet available, but Indonesia’s gender quota requires that 30 per cent of candidates, and every third candidate on an electoral list, be a woman. The losing presidential candidates filed legal challenges to disqualify Prabowo and re-run the election, a not uncommon practice in Indonesian elections.

Sources: Al Jazeera, The Diplomat, Cabinet Secretariat of the Republic of Indonesia, Reuters

Indonesian civil society organizations and opposition parties have called for a parliamentary investigation into the 14 February general election and threatened to file cases with the Constitutional Court, alleging abuses of state resources by outgoing President Joko Widodo and criticizing the conduct of the General Elections Commission (KPU). The allegations include pressure on local politicians to support Prabowo in exchange for state funds, tampering with overseas votes, vote-buying, social media manipulation, and “logistical and administrative problems” in seven provinces, a required re-vote at over two thousand polling stations, and reports of destroyed ballots. Critics have also targeted the KPU, alleging a lack of transparency. Accusations of “suspicious” preliminary vote counts from civil society and political parties led the KPU to take its running tabulations offline on 5 March, prompting further criticism. Final vote tallies are due 20 March.

Sources: Jakarta Post, Fulcrum, East Asia Forum, Benar News, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Washington Post

The Indonesian parliament revised the Law of the Republic of Indonesia No. 11 of 2008 Concerning Electronic Information and Transactions (known as the electronic information and transaction law (ITE)) on 5 December to raise the necessary standard for defamation and halving the maximum penalty from four years imprisonment to two. Human rights activists and lawyers had criticized the broad application of the law since its passage in 2008 and argued that it was misused by politicians to stifle public criticism. However, critics said the changes did not go far enough and the standard for defamation under the law continued to be too low and therefore subject to abuse.

Sources: Benar News, Reuters

Constitutional Court Chief Justice Anwar Usman was removed from his leadership post and will not be allowed to decide on election disputes, the court’s ethics council decided on 8 November. The council disciplined Anwar for failing to recuse himself from the 16 October decision that changed candidate minimum age provisions that allowed his nephew - and President Joko Widodo’s son - Gibran Rakabuming Raka to run as a vice presidential candidate in 2024 general elections. The remaining judges who joined that opinion were also reprimanded. Legal analysts generally praised the ethics council’s decision, with some arguing that Anwar should have been removed from the court entirely. The ethics council does not have authority to question the validity of the ruling itself, but several petitions challenging the exception granted to Gibran are due to be shortly before the court.

Sources: Jakarta Post, The Diplomat

A 5-4 majority on Indonesia’s Constitutional Court ruled on 16 October that candidates under 40 who had been elected to regional-level positions would be eligible to run for president or vice president, opening the path for President Joko Widodo’s son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, to contest next year’s presidential election. There were previously no exceptions to the age limit. On 23 October, current defense minister and presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto named Gibran as his vice-presidential running mate. The decision raised concerns that Jokowi was attempting to retain political influence after leaving office next year ind building a family political dynasty. Supreme Court Chief Justice Anwar Usman is also Gibran’s uncle, with one of the dissenting judges stating that  the decision “can be described as beyond the limits of fair reasoning.”

Sources: Jakarta Post, Reuters, The Guardian

Indonesia’s parliament announced plans to amend the constitution to permit the delay of elections in the event of an emergency. The speaker of the upper house of parliament also suggested that these changes should once again make the upper house the highest state institution, as it was under former dictator and president Suharto. The latter proposal was condemned by activists and legal experts, as it would grant parliament the power to end the direct election of presidents. Although the proposal to introduce a framework to delay elections caused less controversy and parliament stressed it would not amend the constitution before February 2024 elections, it is the latest of many explicit or implicit suggestions from allies of President Joko Widodo that he be allowed to stay on past his constitutionally-required term limit or that elections be delayed.

Sources: Reuters (1), Reuters (2), Jakarta Post