The Constitutional Court (MK) dismissed the election results dispute (PHP) petition of Padang Panjang City for not having a legal standing, Thursday (9/8/2018).

In the legal considerations read out by Constitutional Justice Maria Farida Indrati, the Court stated that as the Padang Panjang population was 53,094, the regent election threshold would be 2% of the 25,725 valid votes determined by the KPU (Respondent), which was 514 votes. This was contrary to Article 158 paragraph (2) letter a of Law No. 10 of 2016 and Article 7 paragraph (2) letter a of Constitutional Court Regulation No. 5 of 2017.

"Whereas the vote acquisition of Candidate Pair Hendri Arnis and Eko Furqani was 9,338 votes, while the vote acquisition of the Relevant Party was 10,191 votes, so the vote margin between the Petitioners and the Relevant Party was 853 votes (3.31%). This is more than two percent," he explained in case No. 9/PHP.KOT-XVI/2018.

The Court also dismissed the Bangkalan Regency PHP petition in case No. 5/PHP.BUP-XVI/2018 because the vote margin between the Petitioners and the Relevant Party was 23.3%. Case No. 4/PHP.BUP-XVI/2018 on Bangkalan Regency PHP was dismissed because the vote margin was 10.9%. In the same hearing, the Court also dismissed two PHP cases of Rote Ndao Regency No. 14/PHP.BUP-XVI/2018 and 23/PHP.BUP-XVI/2018 for exceeding the threshold. (Arif/LA)

Translated by: Yuniar Widiastuti