Chief Justice Anwar Usman symbolically presenting participatory pin in the Technical Assistance Program of the 2019 Elections Results Dispute Resolution for the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) on Monday (26/11) at the Pancasila and Constitution Education Center, Cisarua, Bogor. Photo by Humas MK/Hendy.

Chief Justice Anwar Usman officially opened the Technical Assistance Program of the 2019 Elections Results Dispute Resolution for the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) on Monday  evening (26/11/2018) at the Pancasila and Constitution Education Center, Cisarua, Bogor.

Of the first simultaneous elections in Indonesia, Justice Anwar said that it is the most complicated in the world. “To say that the United States is the most democratic state is inaccurate. If we observe the territory, population, difficulty level, language, race, religion, Indonesia is the biggest democracy in the world. Compare it with the United States. If the US election had been one man one vote, the winner would not have been Donald Trump but Hillary Clinton, whose votes were much higher,” he explained before 160 participants. He was optimistic that Indonesia will be able to resolve presidential, legislative, and regional election dispute cases.

Head of PDI-P Legal Division Tri Media Panjaitan said that the technical assistance program is valuable for the party’s members and functionaries in facing the upcoming 2019 elections. “Not all political parties understand election rules, including PDI-P. I think 60 percent of participants today are legislative candidates, provincial or district/municipal. Constitutional Court breakthroughs, such as the parliamentary threshold, are also beneficial for us,” he said.

During the program, Expert Staff of the Religious Ministry Janedjri M. Gaffar spoke about “Constitutional Court as Guardian of Democracy,” Ratna Dewi Pettalolo of the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) spoke about “Supervision and Settlement Systems of 2019 Election Disputes,” while Substitute Registrar Mardian Wibowo spoke about “Procedural Law of 2019 Elections Results Dispute Resolution.”

Participants also practiced drafting the Petitioner’s petition and the statement of the Relevant Party in the dispute resolution over the results of the 2019 elections of DPR (House of Representatives), DPD (Regional Representatives Council), and DPRD (Regional Legislative Council). (Nano Tresna Arfana/LA/Yuniar Widiastuti)