Donggala Regent Candidate Kasman Lassa (Left) after listening to ruling hearing on the case of the Regional Election Results Dispute of Donggala District, Friday (10/8) in the Courtroom of the Constitutional Court. Photo by Humas MK/Ifa.

The Constitutional Court (MK) rejected the petition filed by the Makassar Mayor and Deputy Mayor Candidate Pair Munafri Arifuddin and A. Rachmatika Dewi Yustitia Iqbal. The Court assessed that the votes margin between the candidate pair and the empty boxes does not meet the threshold of 0.5% or 2,825 votes as stipulated in the provision of Article 158 paragraph (2) letter d of Law 10/2016 and Article 8 paragraph (2) letter d of PMK 6/2017. Meanwhile, the votes margin reached 36,550 votes. This was elaborated by Constitutional Justice I Dewa Gede Palguna when reading the legal consideration for case No. 31/PHP.KOT-XVI/2018 on Friday (10/8) in the Plenary Courtroom of the Constitutional Court. 

In the results dispute hearing of Makassar Mayor Election of case Number 30/PHP.KOT-XVI/2018, Mohammad Ramdhan Pomanto and Indiria Mulyasari Paramastuti Ilham as Petitioners declared themselves Candidate Pair of 2018 Makassar Mayor and Deputy Mayor based on the Decision of the Makassar Municipality Election Supervisory Committee No. 002/PS/PWSL.MKS.27.01/V/2018 dated May 13, 2018. The Court carefully examined the Petitioners\' petition starting from when the Respondent issued a decision on the declaration of participating candidates in the 2018 Makassar Municipality Election to the Petitioners\' objection to the non-implementation of the decision of the Makassar Municipality Supervisory Committee. After careful examination, the Court found that the Petitioners had not made any legal remedies against the objection. On this matter, the Court is of the opinion that the Petitioners are not candidates for the 2018 Makassar Mayor and Deputy Mayor in Makassar 2018 Election. "Therefore, the Petitioners did not fulfill the provision of Article 1 point 4 of Law Number 8 of 2015, Article 157 paragraph (4) of Law Number 10 of 2016, and Article 3 paragraph (1) letter c of PMK 6/2017. Thus, the Respondent\'s exception regarding the legal station is reasonable according to law," explained Constitutional Justice Wahiduddin Adams. 

No Influence

In the same session, the Constitutional Court also pronounced the decision of case No. 37/PHP.BUP-XVI/2018 and 32/PHP.BUP-XVI/2018 on the election results dispute of Regents and Deputy Regents of Donggala and Pinrang of 2018. The Court declared that the petitions in the a quo cases rejected.

The exception of the Respondent and the Relevant Party of case 37/PHP.BUP-XVI/2018 petitioned by Vera Elena Laruni and Taufik M. Burhan (Candidate Pair Number 3) in the Donggala Regional Election stated that the Petitioners had exceeded the grace period for the revision of the petition. Regarding the exception, the Court is of the opinion that even though the revision made and submitted by the Petitioners was the third one, there had not been significant changes. "The petition submitted is only a minor renvoi of the petition that had been submitted earlier on July 13, 2018. Thus, the exception of the Respondent and the Relevant Party regarding the a quo matter is not legally grounded," said Justice Palguna. (Sri Pujianti/LA/ Yuniar Widiastuti)