Chief Justice Suhartoyo and Deputy Chief Justice Saldi Isra delivered material at the Technical Guidance Workshop on Procedural Law on Disputes on the Results of the 2024 Governor, Regent, and Mayor Elections for Regency/City Bawaslu throughout Central Java Province, Saturday (08/31/2024) in Solo. Photo by MKRI/Agung.
SOLO, Public Relations of the Court - The Constitutional Court (MK) in collaboration with the Central Java General Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) held a Technical Guidance Workshop on Procedural Law for Disputes on the Results of the 2024 Regent and Mayor Election for Regency/City Bawaslu throughout Central Java Province on Saturday (8/31/2024) in Solo. In Session I regarding the Procedural Law for Disputes over Regional Head Election Results (PHP Kada) in 2024, Chief Justice of the Court Suhartoyo and Deputy Chief Justice of the Court Saldi Isra delivered material related to issues that arose during the resolution of regional head election (Pilkada) cases.
Chief Justice Suhartoyo said that Bawaslu was the party that submitted the monitoring report independently, which should be impartial. Simply, that Bawaslu is an extension of the hands and eyes of the Court, only Bawaslu does not have the authority to decide when the case has been submitted to the Court. However, during the practical process in the field, Bawaslu also issued decisions regarding reports and objections experienced by election participants. So in a formal sense, Bawaslu is also a court that assesses reports submitted by parties participating in regional head elections. Because the existence of Bawaslu is related to the resolution of PHP Kada cases at the Court, Bawaslu must understand the provisions of the PHPKada procedural law.
When submitting a PHPKada petition, there are two things that election participants must pay attention to, namely being a candidate pair participating in the Pilkada contest and fulfilling the threshold requirements for filing the petition contained in Article 158 of Law 10/2016 (Law on Pilkada). After being able to fulfill these provisions, continued Chief Justice Suhartoyo, then the Court could enter into the main points of the petition and the arguments which were considered detrimental to the Petitioner. In this case, Bawaslu must pay attention to the deadline for submitting the petition submitted by the Petitioner and pay close attention to the time for the announcement of the decision by the General Election Commission (KPU).
"It should be noted that the object of the petition is a KPU decision which influences the determination of the selected candidate, so it is not an official report on the determination. So, for Bawaslu, when providing information statement, it is submitted to the Court on the day of service or one day before the evidentiary hearing and not as is the case with the Petitioner. And keep in mind, Bawaslu only delivering the information once and each piece of evidence must be sticked by a stamp. "If there is information from Bawaslu that will be submitted online, then you can submit a softcopy statement but the evidence will still be submitted physically and directly to the Court," said Chief Justice Suhartoyo in a workshop which was also attended by Central Java Bawaslu Commissioner Diana Ariyanti as Coordinator of the Legal Division, Education and training.
Bawaslu as a Neutral Party
Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Justice Saldi Isra, in his presentation said that Bawaslu's task, apart from informing the results, was to reveal the facts that occurred in the election process throughout the voting stages which were questioned by the Petitioner at the PHPKada hearing. If no one questions the stages and process, then Bawaslu does not need to provide information statement. Because basically, the Court will rely on the arguments delivered by the Petitioner in his petition, unless there are facts at the hearing which the Petitioner does not argue for but which are open during the evidentiary hearing.
Deputy Chief Justice Saldi Isra continued that the Court in resolving the PHPKada case, relied on the matters argued by the Petitioner and the facts revealed at the hearing. Therefore, Bawaslu must be prepared to provide information that emerges from the hearing. Deputy Chief Justice Saldi Isra explained more clearly that Bawaslu had basically started working at the stage of submitting candidate pairs. From this stage, the most crucial thing that Bawaslu must pay attention to is the eligibility requirements for regional head candidates. As is known some time ago, the Constitutional Court in Decision Number 60/PUU-XXII/2024 has opened up space to provide balance and bring political parties closer to individual candidates, which must also be a requirement for regional head candidates from political parties to fulfill.
Decision No. 60/PUU-XXII/2024
“By fulfilling these conditions, disputes could arise. So Bawaslu must have data regarding the Final Voters List (DPT) and the percentage fulfillment of the candidate pairs. So, we are not just discussing disputes over numbers. So at the upcoming hearing at the Court, Bawaslu, through its excellent information statement, has actually assisted the Court's work by up to 50%. Therefore, it is expected that Bawaslu must maintain itself as a neutral party and become an institution which capable of providing objective information to the Court.
Primarily, through documented evidence in audio-visual form, a narrative can be created of the events that occurred, including the place, time and activities which are proven. So that the Court can properly understand the meaning of each piece of evidence presented. Bawaslu's assistance is the key to resolving the PHPKada case. "That the work of democracy must be maintained together, both by the organizers and even the Court so that the public will increasingly trust in the institutions administering democracy in Indonesia," explained Deputy Chief Justice Saldi Isra
Constitutional Court-Bawaslu Synergy
Chairman of the Central Java Bawaslu, Muhammad Amin, in his remarks at this workshop, said that in this training agenda, it was expected that the participants would be able to take part in the short education as well as possible. Considering the series of regional head elections that have been held previously, there are several major issues that are of sufficient concern. Some of these include voters who do not have the right to vote, inflated vote results, and obstacles when recapitulation is carried out at the polling stations (TPS), district and provincial levels.
"From this careful observation, it can actually be mapped back to each district. Today we are very grateful because the Chief Justice of the Court and even practitioners from the Court came directly to Central Java delivering material and knowledge to all of us. Please pay close attention and this will only happen in the next five years, so the values of this material must be absorbed and understood as well as possible. On this day, due to limited participants, those who present were able to convey the knowledge gained to all organizers from other Bawaslu in their respective regions. "We also hope that in the future, the Court and Bawaslu can work together for future institutional work," said Amin.
This workshop was attended by all members of the Central Java Province Election Supervisory Agency from Friday to Sunday (August 30 to September 1, 2024) in Solo. In this workshop, the technical guidance workshop participants also received material regarding the Mechanism, Stages and Schedule for Handling Dispute Cases on the Results of the 2024 Regional Head Election. Then the technical guidance workshop participants will also receive direct training from the Court to practice preparing Bawaslu information statements in the PHPKada 2024. At the end of the workshop, there will also be an evaluation of the results of Bawaslu's preparation of information in the PHPkada 2024. Thus, the target of the technical guidance workshop is to increase understanding of the 2024 Regional Head Election Dispute Procedural Law for election organizers can be achieved as envisioned by the Court.
Author : Sri Pujianti
Editor : N. Rosi.
Translator : Donny Yuniarto (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.
Saturday, August 31, 2024 | 14:38 WIB 166