Chief Justice Anwar Usman opening the technical assistance program on election result dispute resolution for the GMNI Alumni Association, Friday (7/8/2022). Photo by Humas MK/Bayu.

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Friday, July 8, 2022 | 22:51 WIB

BOGOR, Public Relations—The Constitutional Court (MK) through its Pancasila and Constitution Education Center (Pusdik MK) held technical assistance program on election result dispute resolution for the Alumni Association of the Indonesian National Student Movement (PA GMNI). The event was opened officially by Chief Justice Anwar Usman on Friday, July 8, 2022 at the Pancasila and Constitution Education Center, Cisarua, Bogor, West Java.

Justice Anwar said in his remarks that the Constitution mandated that general elections be carried out in a direct, public, free, confidential, honest, and fair manner. Direct means all eligible citizens use their right to vote without representation. Public means the voting is open to public and transparent, for the sake of public accountability. Free means eligible voters are free to choose any candidate without pressure. Confidential means all eligible citizens have the right to keep their choice to themselves.

“Meanwhile, honest and fair means all organizers or state apparatuses involved in the election process—from the beginning until the resolution of disputes—must be honest and fair,” he said before 60 participants.

The honesty of state officials involved in elections, Justice Anwar added, indicates moral integrity in carrying out each step and process or the elections as well as their duties and responsibilities following prevailing provisions. Meanwhile, being fair constitutes giving equal treatment to all participants of the election without exception.

In the context of the development of democracy and the electoral system, the Constitutional Court Decision No. 14/PUU-XI/2013 in the judicial review of Law No. 42 of 2008 on the Election of President and Vice President, as well as decisions after that, the Constitutional Court reformulated the interpretation of Articles 6A and 22E of the 1945 Constitution. The Court approached this case through systematic and grammatical interpretation of the original intent with regard to the legislative and presidential elections.

The new interpretation causing the separate legislative and presidential elections to be simultaneous in order to strengthen the presidential system following the system upheld by the 1945 Constitution and to achieve efficiency in several matters.

First, simultaneous elections are expected to cut financial costs, which can then be used for reaching other state goals, especially social welfare. Second, they are expected to reduce time waste and social conflicts.

“More than that, simultaneous legislative and presidential elections become a means for political education for the public so that they can use their right to vote shrewdly because all citizens can participate in developing checks and balances in the presidential administration,” Justice Anwar stressed.

Procedural Law for Election Results Dispute Resolution

Constitutional Court researcher Irfan Nur Rachman delivered a presentation on “The Procedural Law for Election Results Dispute Resolution.” He explained that in such cases the petitioner, the respondent, the testifiers, and the relevant parties can be represented by legal counsels based on a power of attorney and/or assisted by ones based on a letter of appointment.

He then explained the verdicts in the Constitutional Court decisions. First, the petition can be dismissed. Second, it can be rejected if it is proven to be groundless. Third, it can be granted if proven legally grounded. The Court can annul the vote counting results by the KPU (General Elections Commission) and declare the accurate results. It can also order the KPU to hold a recount or a revote.

Writer        : Bayu Wicaksono
Editor        : Nur R.
Translator  : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Translation uploaded on 7/11/2022 13:56 WIB

Disclaimer: The original version of the news is in Indonesian. In case of any differences between the English and the Indonesian versions, the Indonesian version will prevail.

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