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Tuesday, February 16, 2021 | 19:15 WIB

Constitutional Justice Suhartoyo reading out the verdict at the ruling hearing of the Mandailing Natal Regency election results dispute, Tuesday (16/2/2021) in the Plenary Courtroom of the Constitutional Court. Photo by Humas MK/Ifa.

JAKARTA, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—The Constitutional Court (MK) rendered the 2020 Mandailing Natal regent election results dispute petition by Candidate Pair No. 3 H. M. Sofwat Nasution-Zubeir Lubis inadmissible. “[The Court] … declares the Petitioner’s petition inadmissible,” said Chief Justice Anwar Usman reading out the verdict in Decision No. 79/PHP.BUP-XIX/2021 alongside the other eight constitutional justices at a ruling hearing on Tuesday morning, February 16, 2021.

The Court highlighted Article 158 paragraph (2) of Law No. 1 of 2016, which stipulates the requirements to file the 2020 regional head election results dispute petition. The vote margin between the Petitioner and the candidate pair with the most votes should be no more than 1.5% of the total 203,207 valid votes, or 3,048 votes. The Petitioner earned 44,993 votes while the Relevant Party received 79,293, resulting in a margin of 34,300 votes (22.14%) or way above the 3,048 vote threshold.

“Based on the aforementioned legal considerations, the Court believes although the Petitioner was a regent candidate pair in the 2020 Mandailing Natal election, the Petitioner didn’t meet the legal standing requirement set in Article 158 of Law No. 1 of 2016. Therefore, the Court didn’t have legal standing to file the a quo petition,” Justice Suhartoyo said reading out the Court’s legal considerations. 

Also read:

Argument of Structured, Systematic and Massive (TSM) Violations of Tanjung Balai and Mandailing Natal Regency Pilkada

Mandailing Natal General Elections Commission (Madina KPU) Clarifies the Arguments of Jafar-Atika and Sofwat-Zubeir 

At the preliminary hearing, Candidate Pair No. 3 requested that the Court nullify the Mandailing Natal Regency General Elections Commission (KPU) decree regarding the certification of Candidate Pair No. 2 Dahlan Hasan Nasution-Aswin (Relevant Party) as the election winner. The Petitioner alleged that the Respondent had hindered voting in as structured, systematic, and massive (TSM) manner, resulting in many eligible voters not being able to vote, their votes being used by other people, and votes being inflated at all polling stations (TPS) for the Relevant Party’s gain. The Respondent withheld invitations to many eligible voters. They didn’t receive invitations and clear information of the voting time and mechanism.

Writer: Nano Tresna Arfana
Editor: Nur R.
Uploader: Nur Budiman

Translator: Yuniar Widiastuti
Editor: R.A. Indah Apriyanti
Managing Editor: Budi Wijayanto

Translation uploaded on 02/17/2021 17:21 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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