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Ruling hearing for the Regent Election Results Dispute of Teluk Bintuni 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 95/PHP.BUP-XIX/2021 filed by Candidate Pair Ali Ibrahim Bauw and Yohanis Manibuy which could not be accepted.

In the legal consideration read by Justice Arief Hidayat, the Court explained on the threshold 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 41.270 valid votes, equivalent to 825 votes.

 “Based on the evidents and facts presented in the hearing, Petitioner received 20.117 votes whereas Relevant Party received 21.153 votes. Hence the votes difference was 1.036 votes (2,51%) which was more than 825 votes,” Hidayat said.

Therefore, 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 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 Regent and Vice Regent Election of Teluk Bintuni, 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,” Hidayat said.

Previously in the preliminary hearing on January 26, 2021, petitioner complained on the votes difference due to the alleged violations by the Candidate Pair Number 2 Petrus Kasihiw – Matret Kokop as incumbent, for example replacing some officials in 30 regional government organisations and 22 districts in Teluk Bintuni as well as other violations done by the General Elections Commission (KPU) of Teluk Bintuni Regency.

Hence, petitioner plead the Court to annul the decree of Teluk Bintuni KPU Number 115/HK.03.1-Kpt/9206/KPU-Kab/IX/2020 concerning the Certification of the 2020 Regent and Vice Regent of Teluk Bintuni dated on September 23, 2020; Number 300/HK.03.1-Kpt/9206/KPU-Kab/XII/2020 concerning the Certification of the Vote Count Recapitulation and the 2020 Regent and Vice Regent Election of Teluk Bintuni dated on December 17, 2020. Petitioner claimed that the votes difference was due to several violations done both by the KPU of Teluk Bintuni Regency and Candidate Pair Number 2 as incumbent. As mentioned before, the incumbent replaced some officials in 30 regional government organisations and 22 districts in Teluk Bintuni. This matter had been reported to the Elections Supervisory Body (Bawaslu) of Teluk Bintuni Regency but was only examined. Meanwhile about the replacement of some officials to be considered as an administrative violation resulting in the disqualification of the candidate until now had not been processed by Bawaslu.

Writer : Melisa Fitria Dini

Editor : Lulu Anjarsari

Uploader : Rudi

Translator: WA (NL)

Managing Editor: BW

Translation uploaded on February 17, 2021 at 12.48 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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