Chief Justice Anwar Usman delivering a keynote speech and opening a technical assistance program on election result dispute resolution for the GMNI Alumni Association (PA GMNI), Friday (9/2/2022). Photo by MKRI/Panji.

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Saturday, September 3, 2022 | 21:29 WIB

BOGOR (MKRI)—The Constitutional Court (MK) held a technical assistance program (bimtek) on election result dispute resolution (PHPU) Batch II for the Alumni Association of the Indonesian National Student Movement (PA GMNI) at the Pancasila and Constitution Education Center (Pusdik MK) in Cisarua, Bogor, West Java on Friday, September 2, 2022. The event was opened by Chief Justice Anwar Usman, with Constitutional Justice Arief Hidayat in attendance.

In his keynote speech, the chief justice said that the election is a constitutional mechanism for the people to periodically elect national leadership. It is an absolute requirement for a democracy, she said.

“Without the election, democracy would not exist. Without democracy, there is no popular sovereignty. In the election, the people are placed on a noble position to determine the nation’s fate,” he said.

Furthermore, elections mandated by the Constitution must be direct, public, free, confidential, honest, and fair, which would generate a legitimate government.

“Post-independence, the implementation of democracy and the election of 1955 received praise both nationally and internationally, because it followed those principles. However, in the context of development of democracy and the electoral system, the Constitutional Court in Decision No. 14/PUU-XI/2013 and subsequent decisions interpreted the original intent of legislative and presidential elections systematically and grammatically,” Chief Justice Anwar added.

This reinterpretation, he said, had implications on the implementation of the legislative elections, which were originally held separately from the presidential elections, to be conducted simultaneously in order to strengthen the presidential system. Simultaneous elections were expected to save up state money, save time, and reduce conflict or horizontal friction in the community.

He emphasized that the success of resolving disputes over the results of the general election in the Constitutional Court does not depend solely on the Court, but also on various parties. Therefore, he hoped the participants of the bimtek and the Court can oversee the democratic process in the simultaneous election in 2024.

“On this occasion, I place special hopes on the PA GMNI management, because civil society organizations are pillars of democracy and key to successful and democratic 2024 simultaneous election. That is why this bimtek is held by the Court along with CSOs in order to build synergy in building a democratic state based on law,” he said before 150. 

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

Translation uploaded on 11/8/2022 07:59 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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