Constitutional Justice Maria Farida Indrati reading out the legal considerations in the ruling hearing of the Puncak Regency election results dispute, Friday (10/8) in the Plenary Courtroom of the Constitutional Court. Photo by Humas MK/Gani.

The Constitutional Court (MK) decided to dismiss the Puncak Regency election results dispute petition on Friday (10/8/2018). The Customary Community Council of Pegunungan Tengah Lapago as Petitioner of case No. 18/PHP.BUP-XVI/2018 was thought to not have a legal standing as it is not an accredited election observer. "Declares the petition cannot be accepted," said Chief Justice Anwar Usman along with the other eight constitutional justices.

The Petitioner claimed to be a government-registered CSO, which the Respondent denied through the Letter on the Legality of the Customary Community Council of Pegunungan Tengah Lapago dated July 11, 2018 by the National and Political Unity Office (Kesbangpol) of Puncak Regency.

In the legal considerations read out by Constitutional Justice Maria Farida Indrati, the Court deemed claims by both the Petitioner and Respondent unverified because the Petitioner was registered by the Papua Province.

However, a registration receipt as election observer, which only consists of ID copy, notary deed, letter, and other documents without petition, does not necessarily mean that the Petitioner had fulfilled the requirements of a valid election observer. "In addition, the receipt was denied by the Respondent in a hearing on Thursday, August 2, 2018. Besides that, the Petitioner did not have other evidence to prove its registration as anelection observer at the KPU," Justice Maria said.

Not Meeting Vote Margin Threshold

In the same session, the Court dismissed the petition by the Maluku regent-vice regent Candidate Pair Number 2 Esebius Utha Safsubun-Abdurrahman Matdoan for not meeting the requirements regulated in Article 158 of the Pilkada Law and Article 7 of the Constitutional Court Regulation No. 5 of 2017. The vote margin between the Petitioners and the Relevant Party should have reached 2% (1,114 votes) as per regulation but in the case No. 21/PHP.BUP-XVI/2018 it reached 9.6% (5,350 votes).

The Court also dismissed the petition of East Manggarai Regency election because of the same reason. The Candidate Pair Number 3 Tarsisius Sjukur-Yoseph Biron Aur had 2.42% or 3,743 vote margin with the Relevant Party, while the threshold was only supposed to be 1.5% or 2,144 votes. The Court dismissed the petition of Alor and Biak Numfor Regency elections (cases No. 60/PHP.BUP-XVI/2018 and 7/PHP.BUP-XVI/2018, respectively) for the same reason. (Arif/LA)

Translated by: Yuniar Widiastuti