Two Letters, One Questioned Article
The controversy over an allegedly smuggled article in the General Elections Commission (KPU) Regulation No. 19 of 2023 on the nomination of presidential and vice-presidential candidates has flared up again. DPR Commission II member Ahmad Doli Kurnia claims to have evidence that Article 18 paragraph (3) of the regulation was smuggled in.
Doli, who chaired Commission II at the time, laid out the chronology. He said the commission received two letters from the KPU, on 15 September 2023 and 19 September 2023, each requesting a consultation meeting.
Normally, Doli said, a consultation request from the KPU or the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) comes with two attachments: a list of amended articles and the full draft of the regulation. But in this case, the commission suddenly received a second letter on 19 September with the same content but different attachments.
The Article's Wording and Doli's Objection
Article 18 paragraph (3) of KPU Regulation 19/2023 states that high-school graduation evidence is exempted for presidential or vice-presidential candidates who lack foreign high-school graduation proof but hold university graduation evidence.
According to Doli, the provision did not appear in the consultation request received on 15 September and was never discussed in the hearing (RDP) with Commission II. The allegedly smuggled article was reportedly listed as Article 19 paragraph (2) in the second letter's attachments.
Doli said he was surprised by former KPU chair Hasyim Asy'ari's statement that the article was not smuggled. He accused Hasyim of trying to shift responsibility.
Hasyim's Denial and the KPU's Explanation
Hasyim Asy'ari denied Doli's claims. He insisted the deliberation of the article involved all parties present at the hearing, including Doli and Arsul Sani, who is now a Constitutional Court justice. Hasyim also stressed that Gibran already held a foreign-education equivalency certificate issued in 2019, which was used in his 2020 Surakarta mayoral candidacy.
KPU commissioner Idham Holik offered a different account. He said the draft norm was discussed in a consolidation meeting on 19 September 2023, one day before the hearing with Commission II on 20 September. It was initially listed as Article 19 paragraph (2) and became Article 18 paragraph (3) after harmonization.
According to Idham, the norm's formulation was also drawn up based on consultations with authorized officials at the relevant ministries.
Why the Article Is in the Spotlight
The article is under scrutiny because several parties, including lawyers for the petitioners in the Constitutional Court's election-result dispute (PHPU), have called it the 'Gibran article' for allegedly tailoring requirements to a specific candidate. KPU Chair Mochammad Afifuddin acknowledged in a court hearing on 23 September that the norm had never been applied in previous elections.
Election analyst Titi Anggraini said the controversy reflects the KPU's lack of transparency in drafting regulations and shows unequal treatment between the presidential and legislative elections held simultaneously in 2024.
Meanwhile, the push for the DPR to use its inquiry right (hak angket) to investigate Gibran's education qualifications continues to gain momentum in Senayan, as several factions review the Constitutional Court's ruling on the Gibran diploma case.
