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MK ready to handle election disputes
A steep hill to climb: Newly elected Constitutional Court justices Wahiduddin Adams (left) and Aswanto are sworn in at the State Palace on Friday
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A steep hill to climb: Newly elected Constitutional Court justices Wahiduddin Adams (left) and Aswanto are sworn in at the State Palace on Friday. (Antara/Widodo S. Jusuf) (left) and Aswanto are sworn in at the State Palace on Friday. (Antara/Widodo S. Jusuf)
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span class="inline inline-none">A steep hill to climb: Newly elected Constitutional Court justices Wahiduddin Adams (left) and Aswanto are sworn in at the State Palace on Friday. (Antara/Widodo S. Jusuf)
With new justices Wahiduddin Adams and Aswanto inaugurated on Friday, the Constitutional Court (MK) said it was ready to adjudicate election disputes, which are likely to arise following the legislative and presidential elections this year.
The court, which is struggling to repair its image following the arrest of former chief justice Akil Mochtar for rigging the results of several regional elections, said it was overwhelmed with election dispute cases after losing Akil, who is now standing trial for bribery and money laundering charges.
The court had been working with only eight justices in the past five months, forcing them to reschedule many court hearings. The new justices will replace Akil and Harjono, who retires this month.
On Friday morning, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono swore in Wahiduddin, a former Law and Human Rights Ministry official, and Aswanto, a law lecturer, at the State Palace. The two will begin their tasks next week. The court will now have a complete team of nine justices.
'Having a full team means that all three panels can fully work,' Chief Justice Hamdan Zoelva said on Friday at the State Palace. 'Therefore, we are absolutely sure that we will be able to handle all the potential 2014 election disputes in a timely manner.'
The two new justices were elected by House of Representatives Commission III overseeing law and human rights earlier this month despite doubts from both activists and several commission members, who deemed most of the candidates unqualified.
Wahiduddin got 46 votes from the 50 lawmakers, who were each allowed to select two candidates. Aswanto got 23 votes.
The two newly elected justices were chosen from a final group of four candidates endorsed by an independent team involved in overseeing the screening of an initial group of 11 candidates.
The lawmakers later dismissed allegations that they were forced to elect Wahiduddin and Aswanto with the legislative election just around the corner, expressing that the two elected justices were the best candidates.
Hamdan has said that the court will remain impartial in handling election disputes, playing down suspicions that his political background as a former Crescent Star Party (PBB) lawmaker would influence court rulings.
On Thursday, the court ruled against PBB chief patron Yusril Ihza Mahendra, who challenged the 2008 Presidential Election Law in a bid to see the presidential threshold scrapped.
Yusril, himself a presidential contender, said he was disappointed by the court's decision, but added that the ruling showed that rumors saying that Hamdan would rule in his favor because he was former PBB member were baseless.
The court stated that the requirement for political parties to win 20 percent of House seats or 25 percent of the popular vote in the legislative election to field a pair of presidential-vice presidential candidates did not contradict the 1945 Constitution, thus must be upheld.
The minnow parties have criticized the court's ruling.
Former Jakarta governor Sutiyoso, now the chairman of the Indonesian Justice and Unity Party (PKPI), said the ruling defied the constitutional rights of presidential hopefuls from smaller parties.
'It is a shame that Yusril's fight eventually failed,' Sutiyoso told The Jakarta Post. 'I truly supported his efforts.'
Sutiyoso said that his aspirations to run for president, at least in this year's race, were now dashed. 'Let's just be realistic,' he said, suggesting that his party would not be able to reach the threshold in the April 9 legislative election.
'Such a threshold is an obvious attempt to prevent figures like me from running. The people are directed to choose candidates from bigger parties who are not necessarily capable. Parties can be small in terms of popular votes but they could have more capable figures,' Sutiyoso said.
He added that the ruling had prompted the PKPI to seek an alliance with other parties for the July presidential race. With the party's target of 'only' 5 percent of the popular vote, it is very likely that the PKPI will merely be a minor member in the alliance, hindering it from proposing a figure to be nominated as the alliance's presidential or vice presidential candidate.
