KPU Clarifies Issues Regarding Women's Representation in Gorontalo 6

The Respondent (KPU) legal counsel (Syahwan Arey) while providing a response at a follow-up hearing for the 2024 legislative election results dispute of Province/Regency at Panel 2 Courtroom, on Wednesday (8/5/2024). Photo by MKRI/Teguh.

JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Constitutional Court (MK) held a hearing for the 2024 DPR/DPRD (House of Representatives/Regional Legislative Council) election results dispute on Wednesday, May 8 2024. The second hearing for Case No 125-01-08-29/PHPU.DPR-DPRD-XXII/2024, filed by the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), was presided over by Panel 2–Deputy Chief Justice Saldi Isra along with Constitutional Justices Ridwan Mansyur and Arsul Sani.

The agenda of the session included hearing the response from the respondent (General Elections Commission, KPU), statements from relevant parties, and the Elections Supervisory Body (Bawaslu), as well as the verification of evidence. The KPU's legal counsel, M. Syahwan Arey, addressed the petitioner's argument concerning the minimum 30% representation of women. Syahwan explained that Gorontalo 6 electoral district comprises two regencies, Boalemo and Pohuwato. Boalemo has 7 subdistricts, 82 villages, and 424 polling stations, while Pohuwato has 13 subdistricts, 101 villages/urban villages, and 439 polling stations. Thus, the election for the Gorontalo Provincial DPRD in Gorontalo 6 includes 20 subdistricts, 123 urban villages, and 863 polling stations, with a total of 219,856 voters.

"During the process from the provisional candidates list (DCS) to the final candidates list (DCT), the petitioner did not raise objections until the national level. Thus, the respondent's response is that this is an administrative issue which does not fall within the jurisdiction of the MK," Syahwan told the Panel in the Courtroom, Building 2 of the MK.

No Objections

The National Democratic Party (NasDem) legal counsel, Ifrianto S. Rahman, in his statement as a relevant party, mentioned that the petitioner was inconsistent regarding the mentioned female representation claim. Conversely, the petitioner also made errors in this representation rule at several locations that did not meet the mentioned percentage.

"Furthermore, there were no attempts to object to the alleged election violations to Bawaslu, the competent authority, thus proving that the petitioner’s claims are merely assumptions and unfounded accusations," stated Ifrianto.

Verbal Recommendations

M. Vazry Arsyad, representing the Bawaslu of Gorontalo Province, provided details about the coordination meeting for the DCT held at the Gorontalo Provincial Office. This was done as a follow-up to the Supreme Court's decision in Decision Number 24P/HUM/2023, as the KPU had not yet amended the rules regarding legislative candidacy requirements.

"Regarding the petition that PKS should obtain a seat in the DPRD for Gorontalo 6 because the votes met the requirement for women's representation, Bawaslu has monitored the DCT in the form of verbal recommendations and documented it in the report of the supervision and scrutiny of the DCT, which primarily includes verbal recommendations to the KPU Gorontalo regarding this rule," concluded Vazry.

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KPU Clarifies Issues Regarding Women's Representation in Gorontalo 6