The Constitutional Court (The Court) announced legally void (void ab initio) the election in South Bengkulu Regency and ordered the South Bengkulu Election Commission (the Commission) to hold another election joined by all previous candidates but the candidate pair No. 7 (H. Dirwan Mahmud and H. Hartawan, S.H.) to the latest of one year.

That was stated by The Court in the trial for decision readout for case No. 57/PHPU.D-VI/2008, Thursday (8/1), at The Court s Plenary Room. The case was filed by Reskan Effendi and Rohidin Mersyah the rival of Dirwan Mahmud and Hartawan (the Related Party/Elected Candidate Pair) in the second round South Bengkulu Election 2008.

H. Dirwan Mahmud was proven clearly to have undergone his sentence because of a murder which was threatened by more than five years imprisonment. Hence, he did not meet the requirement at the first place to be a candidate in South Bengkulu Election.

“The organizer of the Election in casu the Commission and the Election Monitoring Committee of South Bengkulu Regency had been ignorant in carrying out their duties because they had never processed seriously the incoming reports about the Related Party in casu H. Dirwan Mahmud s background and the fact that he did not meet the requirement so that the election had been legally defect since the beginning,” announced the Chief Justice of the Court, Moh. Mahfud MD.

Therefore, continued Mahfud, the participation of Dirwan Mahmud since the beginning was legally void (void ab initio). Had he since the beginning not been a participant in the election, the configuration of votes for each candidate would have been different with the one in the first round and the second round. (Luthfi Widagdo Eddyono)

Photo: Doc. of CCRI PR/Yogi Djatnika

Translated by Yogi Djatnika / CCRI