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Chief Justice Anwar Usman and Secretary-General M. Guntur Hamzah delivering keynote speeches and officially opening the technical assistance program on the 2020 election of governors, regents, and mayors for political parties virtually, Tuesday (20/10/2020) from the Constitutional Court. Photo by Humas MK/Gani.

JAKARTA, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—Chief Justice Anwar Usman officially opened the technical assistance program on the 2020 election of governors, regents, and mayors for political parties virtually on Tuesday evening, October 20, 2020. Before Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Hamonangan Laoly, Justice Anwar said that the regional head elections (pilkada) was the people’s means of choosing their representatives in executive public offices in the regions.

“Public participation in the pilkada is the form of people’s sovereignty in a democratic system. Aptly, demos means people and kratos means government,” he said before 398 participants. He added that through pilkada, the people can directly elect leader candidates in the regions. He said, the people’s aspirations must be maintained by designing pilkada to be transparent, through strict and accountable supervision. Thus, the elect leaders will have legitimacy as they receive direct mandates from the people.

He added that pilkada is mandated by Article 18 paragraph (4) of the 1945 Constitution and Law No. 10 of 2016 on simultaneous election of governors, regents, and mayors. Although the implementation of pilkada is the responsibility of the General Elections Commission (KPU) and the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu), the legal and campaign teams for the contesting candidates or political parties are also responsible for the orderly and smooth running of pilkada.

“The success of [pilkada] dispute resolution in the Constitutional Court not only depends on the Constitutional Court but also on stakeholders, especially the election candidates and their campaign and legal teams that will assist them in the cases,” he stressed. He added that the procedures of the simultaneous pilkada in 2015, 2017, and 2018 weren’t very different.

The 2020 simultaneous pilkada will see more regions than the previous ones, not to mention the challenge of it being held during the COVID-19 pandemic. “We don’t want COVID-19 clusters to form, so the caution in the implementation must be a concern for all stakeholders,” he said.

Secretary-General M. Guntur Hamzah reported that the 2020 election of governors, regents, and mayors is a national agenda slated for December 9, 2020. Its implementation will comply with strict health protocols. The simultaneous pilkada will be the fourth since 2015-2016. The elections will be held in 270 regions, comprising of 9 provinces, 224 regencies, and 37 cities with 734 candidate tickets, including 25 sole candidate pairs.

Guntur said the Constitutional Court received an additional authority to examine and rule on the dispute over pilkada results, according to Law No. 6 of 2020 on the Elucidation to Law No. 2 of 2020 on the Third Amendment to Law No. 1 of 2015 on the Stipulation of the Government Regulation in Lieu of Law No. 1 of 2014 on the Election of Governors, Regents, and Mayors into Law. “With this authority, the Court functions as the court for the dispute over the results of the election of governors, regents, and mayors at the final level. The Court has made efforts for the success of this national agenda, one of which by holding technical assistance program on the procedural law of the Constitutional Court and the procedure for the dispute resolution over the results of the 2020 election of governors, regents, and mayors to direct and indirect stakeholders,” he said.

The program aims at giving information on the procedural law in the Constitutional Court relating to the Court’s authorities, especially the pilkada dispute resolution, and at disseminating the Constitutional Court Regulation (PMK) No. 4 of 2020 on the Schedule and Stages of the Implementation of the Resolution of Disputes over the Results of the Regional Head Elections and PMK No. 5 of 2020 on the Procedural Law of the Regional Head Elections. The program aims to improve and synchronize the understanding and knowledge of the procedural law on the 2020 pilkada. One of the program’s targets is the legal division of political parties.

The program took will take place for three days on Tuesday-Thursday, October 20-22, 2020 for various political parties. Some 398 participants attended the program—384 online and 14 in person at the Constitutional Court's Pancasila and Constitution Education Center in Cisarua, Bogor.

Writer: Utami Argawati
Editor: Lulu Anjarsari
Translator: Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Translation uploaded on 10/30/2020 22:03 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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