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Saturday, October 22, 2022 | 23:30 WIB

JAKARTA (MKRI) — One hundred and twenty members of the national council of the Corps of Indonesian Muslim Students Alumni (MN KAHMI) participated in a technical assistance program (bimtek) on the resolution of disputes over general election results (PHPU) on Saturday, October 22, 2022 at the Court’s Pancasila and Constitution Education Center (Pusdik) in Bogor, West Java. Former chief justice of 2013-2015 Hamdan Zoelva delivered a keynote speech at the event. He said when the nine constitutional justices rule settle disputes over presidential, legislative, and regional elections, they only do so over the final disputes that have gone through the process at relevant institutions.

Before filing a petition to the Constitutional Court, election participants can take legal and administrative measures over matters starting from administrative violations to the central/regional Elections Supervisory Body (Bawaslu). They can settle state administrative disputes in the state administrative court (PTUN). Meanwhile, any electoral crimes can be settled through the Integrated Law Enforcement (Gakkumdu) while violations of electoral code of ethics can be settled through the Election Organizer Ethics Council (DKPP). After all those avenues are pursued, any remaining issue can be brought to the Constitutional Court.

“That is the philosophy of electoral dispute resolution in the Constitutional Court. The Court acts as the police over the Constitution because our country is a constitutional democracy. Democracy means majority votes, and tyranny over minority could happen arbitrarily. To avoid it, there should be supervision based on free, honest, and fair [election]. This is the Constitutional Court’s jurisdiction,” he said.

Constitutional Awareness

At the opening of the program, which took place both on site and virtually, acting head of Pusdik Imam Margono said the Court organizes several types of programs, such as constitution awareness programs for citizens (PPHKWN), constitution debate competitions, and technical assistance programs on the Court’s procedural laws. Those programs start with introduction to Pancasila, the Constitution, and the Court’s procedural laws relating to the exercise of its authorities that are mandated by the 1945 Constitution.

“Through around 34,000 alumni of Pusdik’s [programs], the Court could help improve the citizens’ understanding of their constitutional rights that are guaranteed by the Constitution, so that hopefully the state goals as stated in the Preamble to the 1945 Constitution can be realized,” he said.

Meanwhile, executive coordinator of MN KAHMI Viva Yoga Mauladi said in his remarks that although there was still some time to the 2024 Election, KAHMI could learn about PHPU early on through the Constitutional Court’s help. As an organization in a democracy, it must understand the branches of state power and their authorities.

“Hopefully all participants of this program can understand the materials and help the Constitutional Court disseminate [constitutional] values taught in the program. Hopefully the program will run well and the participants follow it well, so the results will be good,” he said on site at Pusdik in Bogor.

Procedural Law on PHPU

Next, Syamsudin Noer encouraged the participants to understand the difference between a petition on judicial review and election results dispute. In the former, there are no opposing sides, while there are in the latter. Therefore, the proceedings are also different. The 2024 Election will take place in February 14, with the technical matters explained by the election organizers on their websites.

in relation to presidential election disputes, the petition should be filed within 3 days after the vote recapitulation, and the Constitutional Court must settle it within 14 days. A petition challenging the legislative election results must be filed within 3 days (including weekend) and the Court must settle the case within 30 workdays. As for regional election results disputes, the petition must be filed within 3 workdays and the Court must settle the case within 45 workdays.

“Within the 3-day deadline, the formal requirements—the petition, power of attorney, political party endorsement letter, list of evidence, and evidence that can fill up containers—will be received by the Court physically. The Court will ask the petitioners to help the Court with the evidence,” he said at the Grha Konstitusi 3 hall alongside moderator Syamsul Komar from KAHMI.

In such cases, the Court never determines the valid vote counts, but the correct ones. It might also order a recount, the disqualification of candidate pairs, or a revote.

After the presentations, the participants were given the opportunity to ask questions. The program began on Friday and will end on Sunday, October 21-23 with 60 participants attending on site at Pusdik in Bogor and another 60 virtually. They were introduced to the Court’s procedural law on PHPU by Syamsudin Noer from the Constitutional Court.

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

Translation uploaded on 11/19/2022 21:51 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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