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Wednesday, February 17, 2021 | 14:16 WIB

Constitutional Justice Arief Hidayat reading out the Court’s legal opinion at the ruling hearing of the East Bolaang Mongondow Regency 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 East Bolaang Mongondow regent election results dispute petition was filed within the deadline and it was under the authority of the Constitutional Court (MK), but given that it didn’t fulfill the provision of Article 158 of Law No. 10 of 2016, the Respondent’s and Relevant Party’s objections regarding the Petitioner’s legal standing was legally grounded. This legal opinion was read out by Constitutional Justice Arief Hidayat at the ruling hearing of Decision No. 119/PHP.BUP-XIX/2021 on Wednesday, February 17, 2021.

The petition was filed by Candidate Pair No. 1 Amalia Ramadhan Sehan Landjar-Uyun Kunaefi Pangalima on December 21, 2020—well within the deadline set in existing legislation. The Petitioner earned 13,741 votes while the Relevant Party earned 20,965 votes, so the vote margin between them was 7,224 or 14.24%, well exceeding the threshold as required by Article 158 paragraph (2) letter b of Law No. 10 of 2016. Because of this, the Petitioner alleged that there had been violations in the elections.

However, after hearing the Respondent’s response and the testimony of the Relevant Party’s and Bawaslu (Elections Supervisory Body) as well as examining both written and verbal evidence in the proceedings, the Court came to the conclusion that the Petitioner’s allegations didn’t affect the vote acquisition.

“The Court believes that [these issues] didn’t affect the vote acquisition of both [candidate pairs],” Justice Arief said at the ruling hearing in the plenary courtroom, in which litigants attended virtually. The Court ruled the petition inadmissible.

Also read:

Validity of ID Certificate and Money Politics in East Bolaang Mongondow and Manado Regional Head Election Disputes

The Elections Supervisory Body of East Bolang Mongondow (Bawaslu Boltim) Ensure Voters with ID Certificate Have the Rights to Vote 

At the preliminary hearing, the Petitioner stated that even though they didn’t meet the requirements set in Article 158 of Law No. 10 of 2016, there had allegedly been “money politics” or vote buying, which was already reported. However, it was disproved. This compelled the Petitioner to file a petition and request that the Court annul the East Bolaang Mongondow Regency General Elections Commission (KPU) Decree No. 396/PL.02.6-Kpt/7110/KPU-Kab/XII/2020 on the Certification of the 2020 East Bolaang Mongondow Regency Election Vote Counting Recapitulation dated December 17, 2020.

Writer: Sri Pujianti
Editor: Nur R.
Uploader: Rudi

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

Translation uploaded on 02/18/2021 11:34 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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