The General Elections Commission (KPU) has once again delayed releasing the names of candidates who won seats in April’s general elections.
KPU member Andi Nurpati said the office would be cross-checking its results with the Election Supervisory Body (Bawaslu) before announcing which candidates had won seats in the nationwide
elections.
“We will also match our results with the binding verdict of the Constitution Court,” Andi said to Antara on Monday.
The KPU had promised to announce the official list of successfully-elected legislators on Monday, with the new House of Representatives members due to take office on Oct. 1.
Conflicting interpretations of the election law by the KPU, Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court has led to several delays in the release of the official results from the legislative elections.
The Supreme Court ruled on June 18 that the second phase of vote counting by the KPU was
incorrect.
The KPU earlier concluded that only the remaining eligible votes from the first phase of calculations could be recounted in the second tally.
The Supreme Court however ruled that any votes contributing to the victory of a party could be counted again in the second phase, costing smaller parties with less overall votes the chance of winning any legislative seats.
The Center for Electoral Reform (Cetro) concluded that the latter ruling would have awarded at least 66 seats at the House to major parties at the expense of minor ones, as well as cost them thousands of seats in provincial, regency and municipal legislative councils.
The Constitutional Court however decided on Aug. 7 that the method used for the second phase
of vote counting by the KPU was valid.
This ruling meant that the KPU method was to be applied retroactively to the 2009 legislative elections. Court chief Mahfud M.D. said that although legal decisions in general were not retroactive, the method used to determine the seat allocations will affect the future governance of the country and must be applied as such.
A legal analyst with Cetro, Refly Harun, told The Jakarta Post that the KPU had to obey the ruling issued by the Constitutional Court.
“The Supreme Court issued four rulings on the distribution of legislative seats, only one of which was retroactive,” he said.
“However, that one ruling — which could have potentially revised the KPU’s allocation of seats — was annulled by the Constitutional Court.
“The other rulings are not retroactive. They will only serve as guidelines for the future. If the KPU decides to obey the Constitutional Court ruling, they do not need to worry about the Supreme Court
ruling.”
Refly said the Constitutional Court had greater legitimacy, in terms of election disputes, than the Supreme Court.
“The law clearly stipulates that election disputes fall within the domain of the Constitutional Court,” he said.
“I hope that through this debacle, we will have far clearer laws in the future and rely solely on the Constitutional Court when it comes to election disputes.”
On Monday, the KPU announced that it had finished the recount process in South Nias, North Sumatra, and Batam municipality in the Riau Islands province.
The Constitutional Court ordered the election reruns after discovering procedural irregularities and vote rigging.
Besides facing criticism for these delays, the KPU has been under fire for its poor management of the general elections, particularly the registration of eligible voters.
Several political observers have called for the KPU to be disbanded due to their ongoing incapabilities.
