Maidi as Relevant Party and Madiun Mayor Candidate after listening to the ruling hearing of 2018 Madiun Mayor Election Results Dispute on Friday (10/8) in the Courtroom of the Constitutional Court. Photo by Humas MK/Ifa.

The Constitutional Court (MK) could not accept petition of Candidate Pair of Mayor and Deputy Mayor Number 1 Adhan Dambea-Hardi Saleh Hemeto. Such is the Decision No. 3/PHP.KOT-XVI/2018 read by Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court Anwar Usman on Friday (10/8). "Declares the petition cannot be accepted," said Justice Anwar in the presence of the eight other justices.

In the legal considerations read by Constitutional Justice Maria Farida Indrati, the Court maintained that the votes margin between the Petitioners and the candidate pairs who won the most votes were in accordance with the regulations, that is maximum 2% or 2,054 votes. However, he added, the Petitioners\' vote count was 5,366 votes (5.22%).

"Considering based on the above legal considerations, the Court is of the opinion, even though the Petitioners are Mayor and Deputy Mayor Candidate Pair in the Election of Gorontalo Mayor and Deputy Mayor in 2018, the Petitioners did not fulfill the requirements for petition submission as referred to in Article 158 of Law 10/2016 and Article 7 of PMK 5/2017. Therefore, Court maintains that the Petitioners do not have the legal standing to file the a quo case," he said.

Similarly, the Constitutional Court also decided not to accept the Maluku Governor election results dispute (PHP) case. Constitutional Justice Arief Hidayat explained that the maximum votes margin to be eligible to submit an election results dispute petition to the Constitutional Court was 16,113 votes. However, he added, the votes margin between the Relevant Party and the Petitioners was 103,346 votes, equivalent to 12%.

"Based on the above legal considerations, the Court is of the opinion that even though the Petitioners are Candidates Pair for Governor and Deputy Governor in Maluku Province in 2018, the Petitioners did not fulfill the requirements for petition submission as referred to in Article 158 of Law 10/2016 and Article 7 of PMK 5/2017. Therefore, according to the Court, the Petitioners do not have the legal standing to file the a quo petition. Thus, the exception of the Respondent and the Relevant Party that the Petitioners do not have a legal standing is reasonable according to law," he said on case No. 29/PHP.KOT-XVI/2018.

A similar decision was made on other cases, that is, the election results disputes of Madiun Mayor (Case No. 56/PHP.KOT-XVI/2018) and Southwest Sumba Regent (Case No. 49/PHP.KOT-XVI/2018). In the election results dispute of Madiun Mayor, the votes margin reaches 4.01 percent while in that of Southwest Sumba Regent 2.1 percent. This led the Constitutional Court to decide not to accept the cases. (Arif/LA/Yuniar Widiastuti)