Chief Justice Suhartoyo speaking at a national seminar on Potential Disputes and Challenges in the Regional Election of 2024, Saturday (7/13/2024) at the Prof. Abdulkadir Muhammad Auditorium, Law Faculty of the University of Lampung. Photo by MKRI/UNILA.

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LAMPUNG (MKRI) — Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court (MK) Suhartoyo is a speaker at the National Seminar on Potential Disputes and Challenges in Facing Regional Elections of 2024, on Saturday, July 13, 2024, at the Prof. Abdulkadir Muhammad Auditorium, Faculty of Law, University of Lampung (Unila). The event was also attended by Acting Chairman of the General Election Commission (KPU) M. Afifudin, Member of Elections Supervisory Body (Bawaslu) Herwyn J.H. Malonda, Member of the Election Organizer Ethics Council (DKPP) RI, Muhammad Tio Aliansyah, Lampung Police Criminal Investigation Unit Police High Commissioner Dr. Reynold E.P Hutagalung, Unila Law Faculty Academic Budiono, and Chairman of the Law Faculty Association of Unila Asri Agung Putra.

At the event, Chief Justice Suhartoyo, accompanied by Secretary General of the Constitutional Court Heru Setiawan, delivered lectures on the role of the Constitutional Court in dealing with disputes that may occur during general and regional elections.

He said that handling election disputes is not the authority of the Constitutional Court derived from the Constitution. “Because the original authority derived from the constitution is first to review law against the Constitution, to decide on disputes over the authority of state institutions, third, related to the dissolution of political parties, fourth related to disputes over general election results (PHPU). Well, PHPU is a dispute over the results of the general election, which is said that this regional election is not a general election regime; then, impeachment, resolving disputes among legislators who suspect the President committing a violation, [the case] is submitted to the Constitutional Court whether the president and vice president truly committed a violation,” he said in front of the students participating in the seminar.

According to Chief Justice Suhartoyo, the Constitutional Court's original authority was derived from Article 24C of the 1945 Constitution, the Constitutional Court Law, the Judicial Power Law, and the Legislation Law. Meanwhile, Chief Justice Suhartoyo said that the Constitutional Court's authority in adjudicating disputes [on regional elections] is only derived from Law 10/2016 in Article 157, paragraph 3 of 2016, until the establishment of a special court on elections.

“When the petition was filed around 2022-2023 ago, the legislators had no sign of [establishing] the special court, while the simultaneous regional elections were getting closer. Therefore, the Constitutional Court then granted the petition through Decision No. 85 of 2022 by making the authority of the Constitutional Court in handling the regional election disputes permanent,” he explained.

Chief Justice Suhartoyo emphasized that this is necessary to anticipate the course of general and regional elections in the future. Even if the election court is formed, he was unsure in which branch of judicial power the authority would be vested, whether it would be in the Supreme Court or the Constitutional Court.

The authority to handle regional election disputes was previously vested in the Supreme Court. For whatever reason, it was handed over to the legislators to transfer the authority to the Constitutional Court. Therefore, it was accommodated by the lawmakers, but only until the establishment of a special court. However, a special court had not been formed until the existence of article 157.

Other than Chief Justice Suhartoyo, who was the first speaker, the second speech was delivered by the Acting Chairman of the KPU RI M. Afifudin, with the topic of examining potential disputes and challenges ahead of regional elections in 2024.

“There are process and results disputes stipulated in article 142 of the regional election law, which is usually highly discussed at regional election meetings and elections in the participation, and [it] becomes an unraveling problem since 2020. So, we continue to prepare a better national election stage,” he said. Then, it was continued by a Member of the Election Supervisory Board (Bawaslu), Herwyn J.H. Malonda, who delivered a speech on the role of Bawaslu, which regulates the course of elections and regional elections in handling challenges that may occur.

To give the discussion a broad perspective coverage, the committee also presented a Member of the Election Organizer Ethics Council (DKPP), Muhammad Tio Aliansyah, who also delivered a speech on the role of DKPP in realizing elections and simultaneous elections with integrity.

Furthermore, the Lampung Police Chief represented by the Directorate of Criminal Investigation of Lampung Police, Police High Commissioner Dr. Reynold E.P Hutagalung, said that Lampung Police plays an important role in realizing the implementation of conducive simultaneous elections in Lampung Province in 2024. The last speech was delivered by the law faculty of Unila Academic Budiono, followed by the Chairman of the Law Faculty Association of Unila Asri Agung Putra.

This event aims to educate the public about maintaining the democratic system and anticipating potential conflicts that may occur during the upcoming 2024 regional elections.

Author              : Utami Argawati
Editor               : Lulu Anjarsari P.
Translators       : M. Ariva Aswin Bahar/Rizky Kurnia Chaesario (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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