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Deputy Chief Justice Aswanto opening the Technical Assistance Program of the 2019 Elections Results Dispute Resolution for the National Mandate Party (PAN) on Monday (11/3) at the Pancasila and Constitution Education Center, Cisarua, Bogor. Photo by Humas MK/Hamdi.

CISARUA, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—Deputy Chief Justice Aswanto opened the Technical Assistance Program of the 2019 Elections Results Dispute Resolution for the National Mandate Party (PAN) on Monday evening (11/3/2019) at the Pancasila and Constitution Education Center, Cisarua, Bogor..

"One of the underlying activities of the technical assistance is to match the perception of technical issues in the dispute case resolution of legislative and presidential elections," Justice Aswanto addressed the 134 participants.

He said that the general elections as mandated by Article 22E of the 1945 Constitution include legislative and presidential elections. Law No. 7 of 2017 on General Elections (Election Law) states that the legislative and presidential elections shall be carried out from the initial stage to the final stage.

"Among these stages there is a stage where the Constitutional Court will take part. That stage is when there are legislative or presidential candidate pairs who consider that justice would be lost because [the the election organizers has made a mistake] in determining who actually obtains seats, both as legislators and as president/vice president," Justice Aswanto said.

He asserted that the law mandated that if there is a dispute over the general elections, hopefully there will be no vigilante actions, but only legal actions as stipulated in the Election Law.

"From the beginning we have agreed that the handling of electoral process in the Constitutional Court is carried out in a relatively short period, both the registration and case examination. The registration as mandated by Law Number 7 of 2017 is 3x24 hours since the General Elections Commission determines the national vote acquisition. Then, those who can file a petition are political parties. However, it does not rule out the possibility of legislative candidates filing [a petition] individually," he explained.

The opening of the technical assistance was also attended by the Secretary General of the Constitutional Court M. Guntur Hamzah, who said that the Constitutional Court through the Pancasila and Constitution Education Center believes it necessary to provide technical assistance for political parties, individual DPD candidates, and for presidential/vice presidential candidates as election participants. In addition, technical assistance is also provided for the General Elections Commission (KPU), the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu), academics, election observers, and advocates who serve as attorneys of the parties in the proceedings at the Constitutional Court.

Guntur explained that when parties who will litigate in the Constitutional Court understand the procedural of the 2019 Election results dispute resolution, then if there are disputes, the Constitutional Court can resolve them smoothly, fairly, with dignity and constitutionality. He said further, that the technical assistance for PAN is the 25^th out of the 40 programs organized by the Constitutional Court since October 2018. Participants of the technical assistance for PAN are members of the Central (DPP) and Regional (DPW) Executive Boards of PAN from the 34 provinces in Indonesia.

PAN\'s DPP Secretary General Eddy Soeparno said that the Technical Assistance Program of the 2019 Elections Results Dispute Resolution for PAN provide excellent lessons in facing the 2019 Elections. The political process is never free of disputes, as was the 2014 Elections. The dispute resolution process then submitted to the Constitutional Court is important.

"We must have to understand the issues [and] procedure for the proceedings at the Constitutional Court. What is important is that before we [file a petition] to the Constitutional Court, we first take care of our interest in the results of the [elections]. Especially the upcoming elections. Elections will not end on April 17. We must maintain our voice and that is very essential for us. Not only when we win votes, but also how we maintain them," said Eddy. (Nano Tresna Arfana/NRA)

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