Gearing up: The Constitutional Court aims to settle all election disputes filed with the court by March 7 at the latest. (Tempo)

The Constitutional Court has said it will settle regional election disputes filed with the court throughout December in March.

Court chief justice Arief Hidayat said the court aimed to finish the hearing of disputes by March 7.

'€œIf it is possible, we want to settle them all before that date. We don'€™t want to get too close to the deadline. The disputes should be settled swiftly to assure that local administrations in those areas can function normally,'€ said Arief in a press briefing on Wednesday afternoon.

He said the March 7 deadline was set based on a timetable of election dispute submissions to the court. The court has 45 working days to follow up on election disputes after they are listed in its constitutional case registration book (BRPK). The court clerk is scheduled to publish the BRPK on Jan.4.

As of Wednesday, the court has received 147 election dispute reports from 132 regions. Of the total cases, 128 or 87 percent were submitted by regent and deputy regent candidate pairs. Meanwhile, 11 lawsuits were submitted by mayor and deputy mayor candidate pairs and the remaining six lawsuits were filed by governor and deputy governor candidate pairs.

The court said it also received one lawsuit concerning a single candidate-related problem filed by the election monitoring watchdog in Tasikmalaya regency, West Java.

It further said another lawsuit had been submitted by Yusak Yaluwo and Yakob Waremba, the disqualified regent and deputy regent candidate pair from Boven Digul regency, Papua. Yusak was an incumbent candidate until the local election committee annulled his candidacy due to his status as a graft convict on parole.

Regional head election results in 12 regencies and municipalities were disputed by more than one candidate pair in each. Three candidate pairs in Humbang Hasundutan regency (North Sumatra), Nabire regency (Papua) and Waropen regency (Papua) disputed election results in their areas.

Meanwhile, two candidate pairs disputed election results in nine regions. They are Banggai regency (Central Sulawesi), Teluk Bintuni and Kaimana regencies (West Papua), Boven Digoel regency (Papua), West Halmahera regency (North Maluku), Southwest Maluku regency (Maluku), Pemalang regency (Central Java), Gorontalo city (Gorontalo) and South Tangerang city (Banten).

Arief said nine Constitution Court judges would be separated into three judge panels, in which each of panel would hold internal hearings on Jan.5 and 6 to first discuss the election lawsuit submitted, followed by the preliminary questioning of reporters of election disputes on Jan.7 to 8. Defendants and related parties will respond to the lawsuits they are facing on Jan.12 to 14.

On Jan.15, the judge panels will determine election lawsuits they reject and cases they can further process. (ebf)

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