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Monday, April 19, 2021 | 12:10 WIB

Secretary-General M. Guntur Hamzah speaking at a national webinar organized by the University of Pamulang’s Law Faculty’s Postgraduate Program, Saturday (14/4/2021). Photo by Humas MK.

Jakarta, Public Relations—The Constitutional Court’s Secretary-General M. Guntur Hamzah spoke at a national webinar entitled “The Urgency of Legal Reform of the Election Law to Strengthen Indonesian Democracy.” The webinar was organized by the postgraduate program of the Law Faculty of the University of Pamulang, South Tangerang on Saturday morning, April 17, 2021.

Talking about “The Perspective of the Constitutional Court’s Decisions on Strengthening Democracy and Elections in Indonesia,” he explained that the elections serve mainly to generate leadership that carries the people’s aspirations. He said that democratic and aspirational elections must be competitive, periodical, inclusive, pressure-free, informative, and independent.

The Indonesian elections, he said, fill in government offices, such as the president and vice president, members of parliament, and regional heads (governors, mayors, and regents and their deputies). The 2024 elections will be direct and simultaneous, similar to recent ones. He hoped that the violations in the elections can be settled by Bawaslu (Elections Supervisory Body), PTUN (State Administrative Court), Gakkumdu (Integrated Law Enforcement), DKPP (Election Organizer Ethics Council), and finally the Constitutional Court.

Online Hearing

Guntur said that the Court has implemented a system of online petition filing and online hearing for the general elections and regional election results disputes due to the need for swift resolution. The presidential election disputes are to be settled within 14 workdays, while it is supposed to take 30 workdays to settle legislative election disputes and 45 workdays to settle regional election disputes.

Types of Violations

Guntur then revealed the types of electoral violations that have often been proven in the Court. They generally concern vote recapitulation and counting; such as vote inflation and reduction; erroneous recording; recapitulation errors on different forms; asynchronous C1, C1 plano, and hologrammed C1 forms; as well as Bawaslu’s recommendations not being followed up.

“They impact the Court’s decisions. The Court has to be more meticulous and detailed in declaring the correct results to order election organizers to hold a recount or a revote. These violations are very commonplace among the election contestants and organizers,” he said.

He also revealed that based on the statistics of regional election (pilkada) decisions from 2016 to 2020, the Court has granted more petitions in 2020 than in previous elections. This shows hope for the people to get the justice they seek. He also said that the Court not only strives to deliver procedural justice, but also substantive justice.

Notes for Future Elections

Guntur also made notes for future elections: meticulous preparation of the final voters list (DPT), improvement of professionalism among election organizers at all levels especially when counting and recapitulating votes, optimization of monitoring to minimize violations such as mobilization of voters, vote inflation, and damaging of ballots. He also hoped for consistency in the implementation of the General Elections Commission’s (KPU) decisions concerning Papua’s noken system. He also stressed that no companies or entities shall ever restrict citizens from voting and that the contestants’ fulfillment of requirements be scrutinized.

Before concluding his presentation, Guntur reminded the participants of the regulations ahead of the 2024 simultaneous elections. He said that consistent legal framework and basis are for the smooth implementation of the stages of 2024 elections for direct, public, free, confidential, honest, fair elections.

Bawaslu Commissioner Fritz Edward Siregar and Perludem (Association for Elections and Democracy) expert council Titi Anggraeni also spoke at the webinar. The university’s rector and deputy rector also attended the webinar.

Writer: Bambang Panji Erawan
Editor: Nur R.
Translator: Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Translation uploaded on 4/20/2021 17:21 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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