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Justice Saldi Isra read the legal consideration in the ruling hearing for the Governor Election Results Dispute for Riau Island Province in the plenary courtroom on Tuesday (16/02). Photo by Public Relations/Teguh.

JAKARTA, PUBLIC RELATIONS OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT—On Tuesday (16/02), Chief Justice Anwar Usman accompanied by 8 (eight) other Justices read out the ruling for case Number 131/PHP.GUB-XIX/2021 concerning the Regional Head Election Results Dispute for the Mayor and Vice Mayor of Surabaya filed by Candidate Pair Number 2 Machfud Arifin and Mujiaman which could not be accepted.

In the legal consideration read by Justice Saldi Isra, the Court explained on the bar minimum to file a petition on the 2020 Regional Head Election Results Dispute. The maximum percentage of votes difference between the petitioner and the candidate pair with the most votes was 2% of the valid votes or 2% of 772.030 votes, equivalent to 15.441 votes.

 “Petitioner received 280.160 votes whereas Relevant Party received 308.553 votes. Hence the votes difference was 28.393 votes (3,68%) which failed to meet the percentage as required in the Article 158 Paragraph (2) Letter a of the Law Number 10/2016,” Isra said.

Therefore, he further explained that the Court no longer considered other claims by the petitioner due to the irrelevancy and not proved to be affecting the final votes and elected candidate. To conclude, the petition failed to meet the requirement as mentioned in the Article 158 Paragraph (2) Letter a of the Law Number 10/2016 and the Court did not find any convincing reason based on what petitioner claimed for the Court to sheer off the requirements and examine the a quo case further. 

Although the petition indeed subjected to the Court authority; was submitted within the time limit; and petitioner were the Candidate Pair of the 2020 Governor and Vice Governor Election of Riau Island, they unfortunately failed to meet the requirement as mentioned in the Article 158 Paragraph (2) Letter a of the Law Number 10/2016. “Therefore, Court decided that the exceptions of Respondent and Relevant Party that the Petitioner did not have a legal standing were legally grounded,” Isra said.

Previously in the preliminary hearing on January 28, 2021, petitioner plead the Court to annul the decree of General Elections Commission (KPU) of Riau Island Number 217/PL.02.6.Kpt/21/Prov/XII/2020 and Record of December 19, 2020 concerning the Certification of the Vote Count Recapitulation and the Certification of the 2020 Governor and Vice Governor Election of Riau Island and command KPU to redo the voting in Batam City, Tanjung Pinang City, Bintan Regency, and Lingga Regency.

Petitioner claimed that KPU failed to display professionalism before and during the voting, and that they violated the principles of direct, public, free, confidential, honest, fair (LUBER JURDIL) as they did not distribute the invitation to voters, neglected cheating, and polling station working committee (KPPS) who were supporters of Candidate Pair Number 3 resulting in the benefit of certain candidate, and alleged money politics activities done by success team of Candidate Pair Number 3 in the all regencies and cities in the Province of Riau Island.

Writer : Melisa Fitria Dini

Editor : Lulu Anjarsari

Uploader : Rudi

Translator: WA (NL)

Managing Editor: BW

Translation uploaded on February 17, 2021 at 12.49 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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