Constitutional Justice Daniel Yusmic P. Foekh speaking at the National Consultancy XV of the Communication Forum of Male Members of Indonesian Churches, Friday (10/21/2021) at the GMIT Synod, Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara. Photo by Humas MK/Bayu.

---

Friday, October 21, 2022 | 15:42 WIB

JAKARTA (MKRI)—Constitutional Justice Daniel Yusmic P. Foekh spoke at the National Consultancy XV of the Communication Forum of Male Members (FK-PKB) of the Indonesian Communion of Churches (PGI) at the Center of GMIT Synod, Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara. He started his presentation by talking about the principles for the general and regional elections in Indonesia. Following Article 22E paragraph (1) of the 1945 Constitution, the election shall be direct, public, free, confidential, honest, and fair and takes place every five years.

This is reinforced by Article 2 of the General Election Law and Article 2 of the Regional Election Law. In addition, the election process must be independent, honest, fair, have legal certainty, orderly, transparent, proportional, professional, accountable, effective, and efficient. However, in practice there are still violations and disputes. In resolving them, election organizers have provided several measures.

Justice Foekh said that before a dispute over the general or regional election results is lodged to the Constitutional Court (MK), they could be resolved by several other institutions, depending on the issue being disputed. Administrative violations are to be resolved by Bawaslu (Elections Supervisory Body). Meanwhile, any state administrative dispute over the election is resolved in the state administrative court (PTUN). Then, any electoral crime is resolved by the Gakkumdu (Integrated Law Enforcement) while violations of code of ethics are resolved by the DKPP (Election Organizer Ethics Council). The Constitutional Court is the last resort for disputes over election results.

“The Constitutional Court through its authority based on Article 24C paragraphs (1) and (2) of the 1945 Constitution adjudicates disputes over the results of the election. Meanwhile, to adjudicate disputes over the results of regional election, the Court uses [its authority] based on Decision No. 85/PUU-XX/2022,” he said before the participants as well as Law and Human Rights Minister Yassona H. Laoly and Religious Affairs Minister Yaqut Cholil Qoumas.

Resolution of Disputes

Justice Foekh also explained the provisions that the Court applies in resolving those disputes, including regarding the deadline. In a dispute over presidential election results, the petition can be filed until three days after voting and will be resolved within 14 workdays. For the legislative election, the petition can be lodged within 3x24 hours after voting and will be resolved within 30 workdays. Meanwhile, for the regional election, the petition can be filed until three days after voting and will be resolved within 45 workdays.

He also revealed that the violations in the 2019 General Election mostly concerned recapitulation and vote counting, which included the inflation and reduction of votes; erroneous  vote recording; recapitulation errors on different forms; asynchronous C1, C1 plano, and hologrammed C1 forms; as well as Bawaslu’s recommendations not being followed up.

“To those petitions lodged to the Court, the Court ruled to determine the correct votes, order a recount, disqualify the candidate pairs, and/or order a revote,” he said.

He added that Indonesia will be holding another election for the central and regional governments, so the Constitutional Court prepares itself by preparing Constitutional Court regulations on the procedural laws for the resolution of general and regional election results disputes, organizing human resources capacity building for the task force to perform their duty then, and organizing technical assistance (bimtek) programs for election participants, including prospective advocates. The Court also develops its IT support to facilitate justice seekers.

Writer        : Sri Pujianti
Editor        : Nur R.
Translator  : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Translation uploaded on 11/15/2022 14:08 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.

---