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Justice Manahan M.P. Sitompul read the legal consideration in the ruling hearing for the Regional Head Election Results Dispute concerning the Mayor and Vice Mayor of Surabaya 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 88/PHP.KOT-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 Manahan MP Sitompul, 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 0,5% of 1.049.334 valid votes, equivalent to 14.795 votes.

 “Based on the evidents and facts presented in the hearing, Petitioner received 451.794 votes whereas Relevant Party received 597.540 votes. Hence the votes difference was 145.746 votes (13,89%) which failed to meet the percentage as required in the Article 158 Paragraph (2) Letter a of the Law Number 10/2016.

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 Mayor and Vice Mayor Election of Surabaya, 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,” Sitompul said.

Previously in the preliminary hearing on January 26, 2021, petitioner claimed the alleged violation done in a structured, systematic and massive manner by the Candidate Pair Number 1 Eri Cahyadi and Armudji in the whole Surabaya city resulting in the votes difference. They believed that the votes were invalid as the process was invalid and unconstituional, hence the votes count recapitulation done by the General Elections Commission (KPU) of Surabaya City and Sentra Gakkumdu in enforcing the the election law failed to be executed in the right way resulting the loss of the petitioner. They also claimed on the alleged unneutral attitude of Civil Servant(s) in Surabaya.  

Hence, petitioner plead the Court to annul the decree of Surabaya KPU Number 1419/PL.02.6-Kpt/3578/KPU-Kot/XII/2020 concerning the Certification of the Vote Count Recapitulation and the Certification of the 2020 Mayor and Vice Mayor of Surabaya dated on 17 December 2020 and command KPU to redo the voting in all polling stations (TPSs) in the city.

Writer : Melisa Fitria Dini

Editor : Lulu Anjarsari

Uploader : Rudi

Translator: WA (NL)

Managing Editor: BW

Translation uploaded on February 16, 2021 at 19.10 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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