Indonesia top court rejects presidential age limit, clearing legal path for 72-year-old frontrunner

By ANDI JATMIKO and NINIEK KARMINI
Associated Press

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia’s top court rejected an effort to block presidential candidates who are over 70 or implicated in human rights abuses, clearing the legal path for a septuagenarian former general’s ultra-nationalist campaign. Lawyers belonging to a human rights advocacy group and other petitioners argued that the constitution required stricter limits than those written in the country’s 2017 General Election Law, which sets no maximum age. If successful, the petition would have blocked frontrunner Prabowo Subianto, 72, a former special forces general and current defense minister, from competing in the election scheduled for next February. The ruling came one week after the court carved out an exception to the law’s minimum age, allowing Subianto’s vice presidential candidate.