Secretary-General M. Guntur Hamzah officially opening a national seminar at the Law Faculty of the University of Jember and delivering a keynote speech, Saturday (11/19/2022). Photo by MKRI/Yossy.

---

Saturday, November 19, 2022 | 23:41 WIB

JAKARTA (MKRI) — Secretary-General M. Guntur Hamzah officially opened the national seminar and end-year reflection of 2022 entitled “The Constitutionality of the Regional Election,” which was collaboration between the Constitutional Court (MK), the East Java section of the Association of Constitutional and Administrative Law Lectures of Indonesia (APHTN-HAN), and the Law Faculty of the University of Jember (FH UNEJ) and delivered a keynote speech on Saturday, November 19, 2022 at the auditorium of FH UNEJ. He talked about the six principles of election as mandated in the 1945 Constitution: direct, public, free, confidential, honest, and fair, as per Article 22E paragraph (1) of the 1945 Constitution.

He further said that the norm mentions that the implementation is regular and periodical. The principles were mandated constitutionally, thus must be complied with and implemented as a reference for national general and regional elections. In addition, those elections must be based on universal principles of democratic elections.

The regional election, he said, is especially regulated by Article 18 paragraph (4) of the 1945 Constitution. Following the developments in society and conditions in the regions, direct election by the people became a choice for the implementation of democracy from the people, by the people, for the people.

“For the sake of efficiency, the regional election [will be] simultaneous and in stages in order to synchronize the tenures of future regional heads,” he revealed.

History of Resolution of Regional Election Disputes

The authority to handle disputes over the vote count of the regional election, Guntur explained, initially belonged to the Supreme Court (MA). It was then transferred to the Constitutional Court through Law No. 12 of 2008 on the Second Amendment to Law No. 32 of 2004 on the Regional Government.

In short, according to the Constitutional Court Decision No. 97/PUU-XI/2013, the authority to settle regional election results disputes is carried out by a special judicial body. However, before the special judicial body is formed, the authority was left to the Constitutional Court.

Finally, through the Constitutional Court Decision No. 85/PUU-XX/2022, the Court interpreted the 1945 Constitution to no longer distinguish between national and regional elections. Guntur explained that this systematically resulted in a change in the interpretation of the Constitutional Court’s authority in Article 24C paragraph (1) of the 1945 Constitution. The authority to resolve disputes over regional election results directly belongs to the Constitutional Court.

“If you read the Law, it gave the impression of a special court, but with the Constitutional Court Decision No. 85/PUU-XX/2022, the special court is no longer relevant because this authority belongs to the Constitutional Court. Thus, the authority of the Constitutional Court to resolve disputes over regional election results is permanent,” he said.

Through this national seminar, Guntur hoped that the participants clarify the implementation of the law on of regional elections to other academics so that the discussion would be more interesting and the issue could be an object for comprehensive studies. He also hoped the discussion would expand the participants’ insight and knowledge, which can have broad implication for the advancement of democracy in Indonesia. 

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

Translation uploaded on 11/21/2022 10:45 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.

---