Court rules election will only be one round

JAKARTA. The Constitutional Court has ruled that the presidential election would be decided in only one round since there are only two tickets in the race, namely Joko "Jokowi" Widodo-Jusuf Kalla and Prabowo Subianto-Hatta Rajasa.

Constitutional Court Chief Justice Hamdan Zoelva said, as reported by kompas.com, that if one of the two tickets won in the first round it would be enough to confirm that was the choice of the nation.

Previously, the Forum for Constitutional Lawyers and the Election and Democracy Watchdog (Perludem) had proposed that the court conduct a judicial review of Article 159 of the 2008 Election Law to ensure that the presidential election would be completed in one round.

Article 159 stipulates that the winning presidential ticket must gain more than 50 percent of the total vote to avoid a runoff.

This year's presidential election will be held on July 9. (fss)