Chief Justice Suhartoyo talking to media crews while petitions over the local election results are being filed, Friday (12/13/2024). Photo by MKRI/Ifa.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — Although the three-workday deadline of the filing of petitions over the 2024 regional head election results has passed, the Constitutional Court (MK) will not reject petitions lodged to it. This is because as a judicial institution, it cannot reject petitions.

“That is the general principle [for the judiciary]: it cannot reject any petitions lodged. [Those petitions] must be considered and ruled,” said Chief Justice Suhartoyo to media crews on Thursday evening, December 12, 2024.

Asked about the lower number of petitions lodged (280) than the Court had predicted (324), he said the number depends on several factors. One of them is the candidates’ acceptance of the election results. Not to mention, he said, this is the first simultaneous (nationwide) regional election.

“It could be [that the candidates] have accepted defeat [and] do not want to draw it out,” said the chief justice alongside Deputy Chief Justice Saldi Isra and Secretary-General Heru Setiawan.

He added that for special cases, the formal requirements can be overlooked. “But it is case by case. It does not apply to all,” he stressed.

Chief Justice Suhartoyo also introduced to the press the new head of the Public Relations and Protocol Bureau, Pan Mohamad Faiz. He said Constitutional Justice Enny Nurbaningsih had been made the Court’s spokesperson and will explain technical judicial matters such as the process of filing a petition, the proceedings, and so on.

“Matters relating to organization, personnel, and achievements of the secretariat general can [be obtained] from the Public Relations, including the head of the Public Relations and Protocol Bureau, Faiz,” the chief justice said.

Jayapura Regency Election Dispute

Jayapura regent-vice regent candidates 3 Jaap Ormuseray-Asrin Rante Tasak have filed a petition challenging the regional election results. Legal counsel Ucok Edison Marpaung said that election organizers, in this case the KPU (General Elections Commission), had failed to show neutrality. He also argued that Bawaslu (Elections Supervisory Body) had issued a recommendation, that the KPU ignored. He also revealed that voters from outside of Jayapura Regency had been mobilized to several polling stations (TPS) and there had been instances of intimidation against residents, who then felt afraid of casting their votes.

“In Jayapura Regency, there was structured, systematic, and massive mobilization of non-Jayapura residents to intimidate, threaten [voters] so that final voters (DPT) at the polling station could not cast their votes, were afraid [to do so], since [these people] came in trucks, sang songs, so the residents became afraid and failed to vote,” Marpaung said.

He also revealed that when he lodged the petition to the Constitutional Court, the KPU changed date on the certification of the election results, making the petition overdue.

Until 04:29 WIB on Friday, December 13, the list of the 2024 regional election result dispute petitions on the Court’s website showed 280 petitions have been lodged thus far, with 134 filed online through SIMPEL, while the other 146 were lodged on site. Out of them, 16 petitions challenge the governor election, 217 were on the regent election, and 47 were on the mayor election.

Also read:

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Author              : Ilham W. M./L. A. P.
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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