Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court Anwar Usman opening the Education and Training Program for Registrars and Substitute Registrars in the Registrar’s Office and Secretariat General of the Constitutional Court on Thursday (11/4/2019), in Tangerang, Banten. Photo by Humas MK/Ilham.

TANGERANG, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court Anwar Usman opened the Education and Training Program for Registrars and Substitute Registrars in the Registrar’s Office and Secretariat General of the Constitutional Court on Thursday (11/4/2019), in Tangerang, Banten.

To the attending structural and functional officials as well as participants, Justice Anwar said that the 2019 simultaneous legislative and presidential elections are the implementation of a Constitutional Court decision. In order to face the challenges of the elections, the Court has prepared five Constitutional Court regulations.

In addition, he revealed that there has been a change in the schedule of election stages as a result of the issuance of the Regulation of the General Elections Commission (PKPU) No. 7 of 2019, which moves the schedule for vote recapitulation and the declaration of vote recapitulation results forward. He reminded that the KPU has eliminated several legislative candidates of eleven parties, which could potentially result in litigation at the Court.

On the occasion, he motivated participants to continue maintaining integrity, as the people rely on the Constitutional Court to enforce justice.

Learning from Experience

In the first session, Deputy Chief Justice Aswanto spoke about the procedural law of the Constitutional Court. He reminded participants to observe Court decisions on the disputes over legislative and presidential elections in details. He further explained that in previous cases, evidence such as minutes of vote count that were not signed by witnesses at polling stations (TPS) were common. He believes that the absence of witness signatures in a minute is not an indication of an invalid vote count. He also reminded participants of the conditions to opening a ballot box, which occurred during the 2017 simultaneous regional elections (pilkada).

The Law Professor of Hasanuddin University also focused on the topic of validity of evidence. He reminded substitute registrars to be thorough in differentiating documents used in the regional elections and in legislative/presidential elections. He also said that to argue on the number of votes in polling stations, a legislative candidate must provide authentic KPU documents. “[Documents similar to those issued by the KPU have been found in past elections],” he said.

Justice Aswanto also shared his experience in handling the 2014 election result dispute resolution. He and Constitutional Justices Maria Farida Indrati and Ahmad Fadlil Sumadi were reported to the Court’s ethics board on the ground of negligence. The applicant argued that the ruling passed by his panel did not specify who had the right to the seats. He stressed that in adjudicating for legislative election disputes, the Court is only authorized to decide on the vote count, while the KPU is authorized to declare who deserve the legislative seats.

He explained another difference between the resolution of regional and legislative election result dispute. He believes that the legislative election result dispute is not limited to vote acquisition unlike the regional election. He reminded participants that the KPU has eliminated some 300 legislative candidates from eleven political parties from various provinces, which will potentially end up at the Court. He revealed that some losing candidates were not satisfied with any ruling other than the Constitutional Court’s. (Ilham/LA/Yuniar Widiastuti)