Chief Justice Anwar Usman giving his remarks and opening a seminar at UIN Malik Ibrahim Malang, Friday (3/10/2022). Photo by MKRI/Ilham W. M.

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(MKRI) — The general election is a constitutional mechanism for the people to replace national leadership periodically. It is mandatory for a democracy. Without it, there is no democracy; without democracy, there is no sovereignty of the people, said Chief Justice Anwar Usman at a seminar on “Simultaneous General and Regional Election of 2024: Potential Disputes and Challenges” on Friday, March 10, 2023 at the Maulana Malik Ibrahim State Islamic University (UIN) of Malang, East Java Province.

“Therefore, the election process is called a democratic festival, where the people are put on a noble position of determining the nation’s journey to elect its leaders in the executive and representatives in the legislative,” he said before the university’s academics.

Chief Justice Anwar, who attended in person, stated that the 2019 Simultaneous Election had spent lot of attention, resources, and energy. Some blamed the change in the electoral system from previously separate legislative and presidential elections, but some believed the simultaneous election was part a consequence of the presidential system adopted by the Constitution. Regardless of these differences, the Constitutional Court has made serious efforts to perform its constitutional mandate to examine and decide election results dispute (PHPU) cases as fair as possible. 

He also explained how the Court apply transparency in its judicial system through information technology such as live broadcast of its hearings on its YouTube channel as well as updated hearing schedule, transcripts and audio files of hearings, and its decisions its website. These are continuously practiced and developed for the sake of public accountability.

“The positive impact of this transparency is that objective facts at hearings are revealed and recorded well, and are broadcast in full to the community. This means that the Court cannot decide beyond those facts. For the resolution of simultaneous election results disputes in 2019, the Court recorded 3 records with the Indonesian World Records Museum (MURI): the longest nonstop hearing (marathon for 20 hours), the highest number of court documents, and most transparent judicial process. These awards solidified its commitment to becoming a clean, modern, and transparent judicial institution in maintaining its performance and integrity,” he said.

People’s Sovereignty

Chief Justice Anwar also explained that the regional head election (pilkada) is a concrete means for the people to determine their representatives in the regional legislative institution. Public participation in pilkada is the manifestation of the popular sovereignty in democracy. Demos means the people while kratos means government. So, a popular government is implemented through a direct election by the people.

Through pilkada, Justice Anwar said, the people can directly choose candidates of leaders in their regions. Therefore, it is the delegation of popular sovereignty to a candidate to represent them in creating public policies, especially in the regional level.

“Therefore, in order to maintain the purity of the people’s votes, pilkada must be designed to be as transparent and accountable as possible, with strict supervision, so that the election of heads of regions have strong legitimacy as they receive direct mandate from the people,” he added.

Simultaneous Regional Election

Chief Justice Anwar explained that quantitatively, the 2020 simultaneous pilkada involved more regions than the one before, that is, 270 regions—9 provinces, 37 cities, and 224 regencies. Despite involving only 1 fewer region than those in the 2015 pilkada, the 2020 pilkada had more challenges, he said. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many things in the implementation needed adjustment, including the resolution of disputes.

“The success of the resolution of election results disputes in the Constitutional Court not only depends on the Court, but also on many other stakeholders. In this occasion, I have a special hope for the higher education/academics to monitor the democratic process. They are pillars of democracy and key actors for the success and democratic 2024 simultaneous election. [Let us] guard this democratic process together to keep it on the right track,” the chief justice said.

UIN Maulana Malik Ibrahim Rector M. Zainuddin echoed this statement in his remarks. He said this seminar was very apt. He also expressed hope that the upcoming election would run smoothly and meet the election principles—direct, public, free, and confidential.

“This must be anticipated starting right now. The quinquennial election can be our share experience. Hopefully, the (upcoming) election will run smoothly without obstruction. It is our shared responsibility, not only that of the [KPU (General Elections Commission), Bawaslu (Elections Supervisory Body)], and the Constitutional Court,” Zainuddin said.

Author       : Utami Argawati
Editor        : Lulu Anjarsari P.
Translator  : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

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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