Ahead of the opening of registration for presidential and vice-presidential candidates, the name of a student from the Faculty of Law at Universitas Surakarta, Almas Tsaqibbiru Re A, captured widespread public attention. Through a petition he submitted, the Constitutional Court decided Case Number 90/PUU-XXI/2023, which opened the way for regional heads under the age of 40 to run in the presidential and vice-presidential election.

As a result, based on the Constitutional Court’s new interpretation of Article 169 letter q of Law Number 7 of 2017 on General Elections, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, the eldest son of President Joko Widodo, was able to run as a candidate paired with Prabowo Subianto. History subsequently recorded the victory of the pair with 58.59 percent of the valid votes, electing them as President and Vice President for the 2024–2029 term.

This event is documented in the book Student Legal Activism for Electoral Reform, written by election activist Titi Anggraini. The former Executive Director of the Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem) for the 2010–2020 period describes the event as a turning point that reveals the anomalous and paradoxical aspects of Indonesia’s constitutional and electoral democratic practices.

Dr. Sidik Pramono, S.T., M.A.
Lecturer in Public Administration
Faculty of Administrative Sciences
Universitas Indonesia

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