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Deputy Chief Justice Aswanto witnessing the signing of MoU between the Constitutional Court and UPN Veteran on Saturday (16/2/2019) at the Auditorium of UPN Veteran, Jakarta.

JAKARTA, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—The Constitutional Court, in collaboration with Universitas Pembangunan Nasional Veteran (UPN Veteran), organized the national seminar on “Together with the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Indonesia Guarding the Simultaneous Elections for the Nation’s Integrity.” The event took place on Saturday (16/2/2019) at the Auditorium of UPN Veteran, Jakarta.

As keynote speaker, Deputy Chief Justice Aswanto in his speech talked about four authorities of the Constitutional Court as stipulated in Article 24C of the 1945 Constitution, one of which is deciding on legislative and presidential elections disputes. Meanwhile, Constitutional Justice Wahiduddin Adams delivered a presentation on “Guarding Democracy through Elections Dispute Resolution at the Constitutional Court.”

Justice Aswanto said that the Indonesian constitution changed after the Constitutional Court decided on the implementation of simultaneous elections in Decision Number 14/PUU-XI/2013. “The Constitutional Court decided that the legislative and presidential elections must be implemented simultaneously,” he said.

This decision, he added, was based on three things. First, since Indonesia adopts the presidential system which should not have political parties. In its legal considerations, the Court argued that political parties had the right to nominate presidential-vice presidential candidates. “Political parties may nominate [candidates] but the people will decide,” he said.

Second, he said, party coalitions were based on temporary political interest, not for the people. The Court hoped that the simultaneous elections would encourage party coalitions to be permanent, which would promote national development. “[Hopefully] the coalitions become strategic and caring about the nation’s interest. Hopefully political parties are free of [their own] interest,” he said.

Justice Aswanto mentioned Article 22E paragraph (2) that reads, “The general elections are organized to elect the members of the DPR, the DPD, the President, and the Vice President and the DPRD.” “Therefore, there is a constitutional tradition, that is, legislative election (pileg) before presidential election (pilpres), because the House will nominate candidate pairs. Can there be a pilpres without prior proposal from the House? This tradition, in the Court’s opinion, is not a norm, so there is no problem if it is changed,” he said.

Readiness of the Constitutional Court

Constitutional Justice Wahiduddin Adams said that in preparation for the election dispute resolution, the Court had drafted several procedures, that is, the Regulation of the Constitutional Court (PMK) No. 2 through 6 of 2018. They regulate the mechanism and procedure for the dispute resolution of the elections of DPR/D members, DPD members, and the president-vice president. In addition, there is a regulation detailing the stages and schedules of the election dispute resolution at the Constitutional Court. He added that the Court had also drafted the formulation of documents that would help stakeholders in the Court proceedings, such as the drafting of petition as well as the responses of the respondent and relevant party.

Justice Wahiduddin explained that the preparation that the Court had done was to facilitate the elections and to guarantee that the first simultaneous elections would run smoothly.

During the event, the Constitutional Court also signed an MoU with UPN Veteran. Justice Aswanto hoped that the MoU would encourage UPN Veteran students to learn the proceedings at the Court, from examination to decision. “In addition, the students can participate in community service program (KKN) at the Court. Court researchers will guide the students in following the proceedings and draft a resume to discuss,” he said. (Lulu A./M.Nur/Yuniar Widiastuti)

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