---

General Elections Commission Commissioner Hasyim Asy\'ari giving a testimony in the judicial review hearing of Law Number 7 of 2017 on General Elections, Tuesday (29/10) in the Courtroom of the Constitutional Court. Photo by Humas MK/Ifa.

JAKARTA, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—The Constitutional Court (MK) held the judicial review hearing of Law Number 7 of 2017 on General Elections, Tuesday afternoon (29/10/2019). The hearing of case No. 37/PUU-XVII/2019 was to hear the statements by the General Elections Commission (KPU) and the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu). The case was petitioned by seven Petitioners from various professions and legal entities, including election observers Arjuna, M. Faesal Zuhri, and Ronaldo Heinrich Herman. 

They challenged the word “simultaneously” in Article 167 paragraph (3), and Article 347 paragraph (1) of the Election Law for contradicting Article 28G paragraph (1) and Article 28I paragraph (4) of the 1945 Constitution. in this hearing, KPU Commissioner Hasyim Asy’ari in his testimony explained the implementation of simultaneous elections related to the time required by voters to vote and to count votes.

Hasyim revealed, before holding the 2019 Simultaneous Elections with 5 ballot boxes, the KPU had conducted simulations in three regions. A simulation in Tangerang Regency was held on August 19, 2017 with 500 voters registered in the DPT and 512 ballots. The results obtained were 249 voters, 22 witnesses, and 4 ballots. The average time required for voting in general was 4 minutes, for elderly voters 5 minutes, for pregnant voters 7 minutes, disability voters 7 minutes, blind voters 9 minutes, and housewives 4 minutes. The vote count took 1 hour 15 minutes and filling out the minutes 20 minutes. 

"In conclusion, voting took 6 hours, while for vote counting it depended on the number of voters. This simulation did not include objection and resolution," Hasyim explained before the hearing led by Chief Justice Anwar Usman, accompanied by the other eight constitutional justices. 

Strict Verification Requirements

Related to the opinion that the verification requirements for 2019 elections participants were very strict, Hasyim mentioned that there were 73 political parties who registered as participants in the 2019 Elections at the Ministry of Law and Human Rights. However, only 27 political parties would later register with the KPU, 13 of which did not meet the requirements or did not submit complete documents. Only 14 national political parties were declared eligible. Among the 13 parties that did not meet the requirements, 9 political parties filed a suit to the Bawaslu with complaint of administrative violations. 

"On this matter, Bawaslu decided that registration would be carried out in two stages. Political parties that met the requirements of documents such as the Berkarya Party and the Garuda Party, after factual verification and declaration that they had met the requirements, they can advance as contesting political parties in the elections," Hasyim explained. 

In the previous session, the Petitioners stated that the provision of Article 22E paragraph (1) of the 1945 Constitution on the implementation of elections should bring benefits to the people and should not harm the interests of the people, especially concerning human lives. However, the Petitioners considered the 2019 Simultaneous Elections heavy and full of pressure, as the presidential/vice presidential election conflated with the election of legislative members. In fact, the Medical Emergency Rescue Committee (MER-C) recorded 544 election administrators had died and 3,788 people had fallen ill.  

Before closing the session, Justice Anwar said that the hearing would commence on Monday, November 18, 2019 at 10:00 WIB to hear the testimony of expert presented by the Constitutional Court. (Sri Pujianti/NRA)

Translated by: Yuniar Widiastuti

---