T

he Constitutional Court said Wednesday it will officially begin accepting lawsuits challenging the outcome of the legislative election when the General Elections Commission (KPU) announces the final result from the poll count.

The KPU is scheduled to finish the manual vote count by the May 9 deadline this Saturday.

"The moment the KPU concludes the counting process, any political party that disagreed with the election result can directly file their lawsuits with us," Constitutional Court chief Mahfud MD told a press conference at his office in Jakarta.

He said political parties would have 72 hours from the moment the KPU releases the results to file their objections.

"We start counting down the second we open registration," he said.

The KPU has come under fire for failing to the stage the legislative election according to schedule because of poor preparation and management.

The national polls body even failed to hold the legislative elections simultaneously across the country on April 9, 2009.

Election watchdogs and activists anticipate the KPU will not be able to announce the election results by the deadline this Saturday.

The KPU also faced criticism for the disorganized manner in which the elections were held, leading to flawed electoral roles and thousands of unregistered voters.

It was suggested the Constitutional Court was concerned at the large number of election dispute cases it would have to deal with following the announcement of the national results.

However, Mahfud dismissed this concern as "unnecessary" and said the court's judges would work around the clock to ensure the cases were handled.

"We will delay court hearings for non-election related cases between May 15 and June 24," he said.

The Constitutional Court had promised to finish processing cases of election disputes between political parties, legislative candidates and the KPU by June 24.

Machfud said even though the registration period for filing cases was not yet open, the Court had already received nearly 100 reports of election violations from petitioners. Those cases would not be examined until registration has begun, he added.

Mahfud reiterated that petitioners could only file suits in connection to disputes over vote calculations.

"But we will process any case that deals with a significant factor that led to a candidate's success or defeat," he said. If the court determined that a candidate did not win enough votes to secure a legislative seat, the case would not be proceeded with.

Mahfud added that only political parties held the legal status to file cases with the court, and if an individual candidate wished to complain, they would have to file their dispute through a party's central board.

"We will only process a lawsuit acknowledged by the party's chairperson or secretary general," Mahfud said.

He also called on KPU members to ensure ballot boxes were well secured, particularly in areas facing protest over the election outcome.