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Wednesday, February 17, 2021 | 12:01 WIB

Constitutional Justice Saldi Isra reading out the Court’s legal considerations at the ruling hearing of the Palu City election results dispute, Wednesday (17/2/2021) in the Plenary Courtroom of the Constitutional Court. Photo by Humas MK/Teguh.

JAKARTA, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—The Constitutional Court (MK) rendered the Palu mayor election results dispute petition by Candidate Pair No. 3 Hidayat-Habsa Yanti Ponulele inadmissible. The Decision No. 94/PHP.KOT-XIX/2021 was read out by Chief Justice Anwar Usman alongside the other eight constitutional justices at a ruling hearing on Wednesday, February 17, 2021 in the plenary courtroom.

In the legal considerations read out by Constitutional Justice Saldi Isra, the Court highlighted the Petitioner’s legal standing regarding the threshold to file the 2020 regional head election dispute petition. The Court stated that the vote margin between the Petitioner and the candidate pair with the most votes should be no more than 1.5% of the 160,266 total valid votes, or 2,403 votes.

“Based on the evidence and facts presented to the Court, the Petitioner earned 30,372 votes while the Relevant Party earned 64,249 votes, so the vote margin between them was 30,372 subtracted from 64,249, which is 33,877 votes (21,1%) or more than 2,403 votes, which exceeded the threshold as required by Article 158 paragraph (2) letter b of Law No. 10 of 2016,” Justice Saldi read.

The Court believes that even if the petition was under the Court’s authority, the petition was filed within the deadline, and the Petitioner were a candidate pair in the 2020 Palu mayor election, the Petitioner didn’t meet the requirement as set in Article 158 paragraph (2) letter b of Law No. 10 of 2016. Therefore, the Court didn’t consider the Respondent’s and Relevant Party’s objections as well as the petition’s main points.

Also read:

Candidate Pairs for Tolitoli Regent and Palu Mayor Revealed Violations in Election 

KPU of Taliabu Island: Not All Voters Used Their Voting Rights

At the preliminary hearing on Thursday, January 28, 2021, Candidate Pair No. 3 Hidayat-Habsa Yanti Ponulele through attorney Riswanto Lasdin requested that the Court nullify the Palu City General Elections Commission (KPU) Decree No. 402/PL.02.6.Kpt/7271/KPU-Kot/XII/2020 on the Certification of the 2020 Palu City Election Vote Counting Recapitulation dated December 17, 2020. They objected the city’s KPU decision due to alleged structured, systematic, and massive (TSM) violations by the KPU, which had flouted the direct, public, free, confidential, honest, and fair principles of the election and significantly affected the vote acquisition.

Writer: Melisa F. D.
Editor: Nur R.
Uploader: Rudi

Translator: Yuniar Widiastuti
Editor: NL
Managing Editor: Budi Wijayanto

Translation uploaded on 02/18/2021 11:39 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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