T

he General Elections Commission (KPU) said on Tuesday that it was ready to fight a protracted legal battle at the Constitutional Court, now that all but one of the political parties that contested the 2014 legislative election had filed election disputes with the court.

KPU commissioner Arief Budiman said the commission would be establishing three teams of lawyers to represent the KPU in front of three panels of justices.

'€œBecause we will deal with three justice panels, we have to establish at least three teams of lawyers,'€ he told reporters at KPU headquarters in Menteng, Central Jakarta.

Arief added that the panels of judges would handle electoral disputes from three separate regions in the country, namely Western Indonesia, Central Indonesia and Eastern Indonesia.

After being established, the KPU legal teams would then study within the next seven days the documentation pertaining to the election disputes filed by political parties and candidates, he said.

In analyzing the documents, the KPU would verify those submitted by the political parties with its own.

The KPU would also work with the Supreme Court to join its legal fight against disgruntled political parties and their legislative candidates, Arief said.

'€œWe have requested [the Supreme Court] to act as our adviser to offer us input. But it is our legal teams that will conduct the work,'€ he said.

Arief said that, so far, the KPU had recruited former presidential adviser and noted lawyer Adnan Buyung Nasution as one of its legal counsel.

'€œ[We chose him] because of his competence, professionalism and independence,'€ he said. '€œDuring a dispute related to the registration of election participants [in 2012], he was also part of our [legal] team.'€

Meanwhile, KPU chairman Husni Kamil Manik said the commission would also work with the Attorney General'€™s Office (AGO).

'€œWe will use the services of lawyers provided by the AGO,'€ he said.

Constitutional Court secretary-general Janedjri M. Gaffar said on Tuesday that the number of electoral disputes filed with the court totaled 702; 672 had been filed by all 12 national political parties and two local parties in Aceh, the Aceh National Party (PNA) and the Aceh Peace Party (PDA), while the remaining 30 cases had been filed by Regional Representatives Council (DPD) candidates.

Of the 34 provinces nationwide, only Yogyakarta saw its vote tally result not being contested at the court.

This year'€™s election has seen a rise in the number of electoral disputes compared to the 2009 election, when only 628 cases were filed by 38 political parties.

The average number of election disputes filed by a single political party in 2009 was 17. This year, the figure has risen to 48.

The party with the most election disputes filed is the Crescent Star Party (PBB) with 90 cases, followed by the Democratic Party with 85; the Golkar Party with 73; the Hanura Party with 71; and the Indonesian Justice and Unity Party (PKPI) with 68.

Both the PBB and the PKPI failed to meet the legislative threshold of 3.5 percent and risk not having any representatives in the House of Representatives.