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Deputy Chief Justice Aswanto officially closing the technical assistance program on the 2020 election of governors, regents, and mayors for the General Elections Commission virtually, Wednesday (7/10) from Jakarta. Photo by Humas MK/Ifa.

JAKARTA, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—It is not necessary that petitioners in the judicial review cases in the Constitutional Court (MK) be advocates. Any member of the community whose constitutional rights have been violated may file a judicial review petition. In regional head elections (pilkada), the petitioners are the election candidates, said Deputy Chief Justice Aswanto in the technical assistance program on the 2020 election of governors, regents, and mayors for the General Elections Commission (KPU) on Wednesday, October 7, 2020. The program was organized by the Constitutional Court's Pancasila and Constitution Education Center virtually on with participants from the 32 provinces that participate in the elections.

"Therefore, the presence of an advocate is not an issue. May be that’s why many are more comfortable with the Constitutional Court, as it’s not too structural, doesn’t charge any fees, and during the resolution of election disputes over the votes, special rooms are provided for the KPU and Bawaslu [Elections Supervisory Agency]," he said.

Justice Aswanto further said that the Court will handle disputes in the 2020 election of governors, regents, and mayors (pilkada), before a special court is established to do so. Only then will the Constitutional Court be able to focus on its main authority to review laws. As the pilkada dispute resolution will need considerable energy and attention, the Court will postpone its judicial review hearings.

He added that the Constitutional Court has prepared the Constitutional Court Regulation (PMK) No. 5 of 2020 for the resolution of pilkada disputes. It took a significant time to complete as it needs adjustments with the pilkada organizers. "So, for quite some time, the Constitutional Court coordinated with the KPU to formulate provisions in resolving the pilkada issues in the Constitutional Court," he said.

Before concluding his speech, Justice Aswanto hoped the technical assistance program will help stakeholders in the KPU, who will be the Respondent in pilkada cases, fully understand the things that they need to prepare to solve various problems related to the upcoming elections so that the Constitutional Court will be left with only vote acquisition issues, and not technical problems that can be resolved earlier.

2020 Pilkada Portal

On the third day of the program, computer officer Tarnoto explained the menu on the Court’s website mkri.id. Amid the pandemic, litigants are encouraged to utilize the website more to access courtroom proceedings, starting from filing petition online until the ruling is pronounced. The Court has prepared the 2020 Pilkada porta on the website to give the public access to monitor the 2020 pilkada hearing process. He also showed the participants how to find certain information relating to the court proceedings, such as the minutes of the hearings, videos of the hearings, as well as to track the cases from the index. “Participants who’d like to access videos or photos and other publication relating to the hearings can come to the Court and file a request to the Registrar’s Office or the PPID [Information and Documentation Management Officials] at the Court’s building,” he said virtually from the 5^th floor of the Constitutional Court.

Programmer Rudi Kurniawan explained some more information on the portal by giving an illustration of what transpired in the previous pilkada. A list of petitions can be seen in real time on the system. “The time the petition [is filed], the name of the petitioner and their attorney can be monitored in real time, while the petition file can only be accessed 2 hours after the registration at the earliest and 2 days after at the latest,” he said alongside moderator Nanda Adytiansyah.

The technical assistance program is meant to improve the stakeholders’ understanding of the procedural regarding pilkada. The program will last three days (October 6-8, 2020) with an adherence to strict health protocols. The materials to be covered include the techniques to draft responses, practice on drafting the respondent’s response, and the electronic information system. The materials will be delivered by qualified sources, such as the constitutional justices, registrar, junior registrars, researchers, and staff members of the Constitutional Court.

Writer: Sri Pujianti
Editor: Lulu Anjarsari
Translator: Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Translation uploaded on 10/23/2020 22:51 WIB

Disclaimer: The original version of the news is in Indonesian. In case of any differences between the English and the Indonesian version, the Indonesian version will prevail.

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