Chief Justice Suhartoyo leading a discussion on revising the Court’s procedures for handling the Results of Regional Election Dispute Cases. Photo: MKRI/Ilham WM

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BANDUNG (MKRI) — Chief Justice Suhartoyo opened a meeting to discuss the constitutional court regulation (PMK) on the procedural law and stages of dispute resolution over the results of the governor, regent, and mayor election of 2024 and the regulation of the chief justice of the Constitutional Court (PKMK) on the Registrar’s Office’s structure and work procedure on Thursday, July 25, 2024, in Bandung, West Java Province. In his remarks, he said that the Court had recently concluded handling disputes over the results of the Presidential and Vice-Presidential elections as well as legislative election disputes.

Chief Justice Suhartoyo mentioned issues found in the Court procedural law when applied in practice. “Therefore, based on a Justices’ Deliberation Meeting held some time ago, the Justices agreed that reforms to the Court regulations cannot be delayed any longer,” said Justice Suhartoyo.

Revision to the regulation is urgent and must be resolved immediately, considering the court must disseminate them ahead of the regional election dispute resolution period.

In the first session of this event, the discussion focused on the Preparation and Stages of the 2024 Governor, Regent, and Mayor Elections. This session featured Justice Enny Nurbaningsih and General Election Commission (KPU) Commissioner Idham Holik. Justice Enny stated in her presentation that the legislative regulations have clearly delineated the authority of each institution in general elections (pemilu) and regional elections (pilkada). However, there are still applicants who challenge this in disputes over the results of Presidential and Legislative elections, as well as regional election disputes.

Hence, the Court finds itself compelled to scrutinize the electoral processes, with many pivotal rulings of the Court involving such reviews. Justice Enny highlighted cases like the disputes over the Boven Digul and Sabu Raijua election results, both pivotal for their process-related implications in the Court’s jurisprudence. Enny emphasized the importance of addressing these issues, especially given the current challenges to laws governing gubernatorial, regential, and mayoral elections, potentially influencing Election Commission Regulations (PKPU). She underscored the necessity for the KPU, as the respondent in electoral disputes, to furnish comprehensive evidence.

Meanwhile, in his presentation, Idham Holik mentioned that the KPU has concluded handling 44 decisions on legislative election disputes for 2024. Regarding the issue of evidence raised by Justice Enny Nurbaningsih, Idham stated that this would serve as an evaluation for the KPU. According to Idham, the completeness of evidence from the KPU will be an indicator of moral hazard from the organizers. Furthermore, Idham emphasized that election results will still be published by the KPU to ensure public access to both general election and regional election outcomes.

Regarding the Sabu Raijua  election case, Idham clarified that it was related to population administration issues. Therefore, moving forward, the KPU will collaborate with the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, as well as other relevant agencies.

In his opening remarks for this event, Secretary General of the Court MK, Heru Setiawan, reported that this session is a follow-up to a previous consultation that successfully inventoried and identified issues regarding procedural processes in handling disputes over the results of the 2024 Presidential and Legislative elections. Secretary General Heru stated that the event is scheduled to take place from July 25 to July 28, 2024.

Author         : Ilham Wiryadi Muhammad
Editor          : Nur R.
Translator    : Naomi Andrea Zebua/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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