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Deputy Chief Justice Aswanto delivering a keynote speech at and closing the technical assistance program on the 2020 pilkada results dispute settlement for KAI, PPKHI, and the Association of Trisakti University’s Law Faculty Alumni, Friday (11/12/2020) from Jakarta. Photo by Humas MK/Ilham.

JAKARTA, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—Deputy Chief Justice Aswanto delivered a keynote speech at and closing the technical assistance program (bimtek) on the 2020 election of governors, regents, and mayors (pilkada) for the Congress of Indonesian Advocates (KAI), the Indonesian Christian Legal Profession Association (PPKHI), and the Association of Trisakti University’s Law Faculty Alumni virtually on Friday, December 11, 2020.

Also read: Chief Justice: Pilkada an Implementation of Democracy and Nomocracy 

He said the program will help the participants advocate for their clients in the pilkada dispute cases in the Constitutional Court. They might have to counsel different parties in those cases.

Justice Aswanto then explained that the vote margin threshold is one of the substance of a pilkada dispute case, as the source of contention is the votes acquired by the candidate pairs/tickets. “If the Court thoughtlessly implement the vote margin threshold on the candidate pairs that file petitions, the Court would be siding with one of the parties, that is, the [General Elections Commission (KPU)]. Therefore, when [the Court] examines the pilkada dispute cases, the vote margin threshold will be decided on last, after its validity is examined,” he explained. 

Also read: Pilkada Results Dispute Petition to Be Filed Only Once

In addition, Justice Aswanto reminded the participants that evidence submitted to the Court must have evidentiary value. He also revealed that witnesses at the polling stations (TPS) often sign the document that shows the vote count results. However, after finding out that their tickets lost based on the recapitulation, witnesses at higher levels often refuse to sign such a document. Justice Aswanto believes such objection should be raised since the polling station level.

He also informed that the number of witnesses and experts that can be presented in the hearings is limited. When attending hearings in person, the number of people able to enter the courtrooms is also limited. 

Writer: Utami Argawati
Editor: Nur R.
Translator: Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Translation uploaded on 12/15/2020 19:27 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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