---

The virtual ruling hearing of the South Manokwari Regency election results dispute, Wednesday (17/2/2021) in the Plenary Courtroom of the Constitutional Court. Photo by Humas MK/Ifa.

JAKARTA, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—The ruling hearing of the 2020 South Manokwari regent election results dispute was held by the Constitutional Court (MK) on Wednesday afternoon, February 17, 2021. The Court believes the Petitioner didn’t have legal standing and dismissed their petition.

“[The Court] declares the Petitioner’s petition inadmissible,” said plenary chair Chief Justice Anwar Usman reading out Decision No. 42/PHP.BUP-XIX/2021 at the virtual ruling hearing in the plenary courtroom.

Candidate Pair Seblum-Imam had registered to the South Manokwari Regency General Elections Commission (KPU) to run in the 2020 election. However, the KPU didn’t confirm them as an official candidate pair because they hadn’t met the requirements nor passed the KPU’s verification.

“The Court believes that the Petitioner of the a quo case was not a regent candidate pair in the 2020 South Manokwari regent election because they didn’t meet the formal requirements set in Article 1 point 4 of Law No. 8 of 2015, Article 157 paragraph (4) of Law No. 10 of 2016, and Article 4 paragraph (1) of the Constitutional Court Regulation No. 6 of 2020 to have the legal standing to file election results dispute petition, making the petition irrelevant to be considered,” said Constitutional Justice Suhartoyo reading out the Court’s legal opinion.

Also read:

The Victory of a Single Candidate in Raja Ampat and South Manokwari Pilkada Are Questioned

Raja Ampat General Elections Commission (KPU): the Petitioner Does Not Have an Observer Certificate 

At the preliminary hearing, the Petitioner objected to the election win of a single candidate in South Manokwari Regency. They alleged that it was because the Respondent had manipulated the election application process and failed to organize an honest and fair election. However, according to the inspection by the regency’s Elections Supervisory Body (Bawaslu), no violations and report of manipulation was found. Bawaslu confirmed that Candidate Pair Seblum Mandacan-Imam Syafi’i had sent three petitions to the regency’s KPU. Two of the petitions were registered and one was denied.

Meanwhile, Candidate Pair Markus Waran-Wempi Welly Rengkung as the Relevant Party emphasized that the Petitioner wasn’t a candidate pair in the regency’s election because all three of their applications had been rejected.

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

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

Translation uploaded on 02/18/2021 17:07 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.

---