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KPU, Constitutional Court prepare for election disputes
The Constitutional Court will kick off preliminary hearings for election disputes on Tuesday, with plaintiffs scheduled to deliver their principal pleadings.
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he General Elections Commission (KPU) is preparing to face more than a hundred regional election disputes fi led at the Constitutional Court last month, as the court aims to settle all election-related cases by March.
KPU commissioner Hasyim Asy’ari said the commission had ordered its regional offices to prepare for trial by holding coordination meetings and technical courses.
“During the meetings, we cover related regulations on election disputes at the Constitutional Court, advocacy strategies as well as evidence verification methods during online and offline hearings, among other topics,” Hasyim said on Jan. 18 as quoted by kompas.com.
The Constitutional Court will kick off preliminary hearings for election disputes on Tuesday, with plaintiffs scheduled to deliver their principal pleadings.
The court aims to settle 132 regional election disputes, comprising seven petitions relating to gubernatorial elections, 112 on regental elections and 13 on mayoral elections. It had initially received 136 disputes, but one petition concerning the Magelang mayoral election in East Java fi led by candidate Aji Setyawan and Windarti was withdrawn.
Three petitions were dropped by the court as they had been fi led twice. They pertained to the regental election in Pegunungan Bintang and Memberamo Raya regencies in Papua, as well as Aru Islands regency in Maluku.
The court would need to settle the petitions by March 24, or 45 days after receiving petitions from the losing candidates, said Constitutional Court Chief Justice Anwar Usman on Thursday as reported by Antara.
While the court has been settling regional election disputes in the past 10 years, he added this time would be different because the hearings would be done amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The court has prepared to conduct online hearings to minimize the risk of COVID-19 transmission. It has also renovated two courtrooms for in-person hearings to ensure attendees can maintain a physical distance during the process.
Court spokesperson Fajar Laksono previously said that the court had coordinated with the National Police to set up security precautions in courtrooms, court premises in Central Jakarta, as well as the residences of the nine justices both in and outside Jakarta.
Home Minister Tito Karnavian had also requested that newly confirmed National Police chief Comr. Gen. Listyo Sigit Prabowo closely monitor all regional election dispute hearings at the Constitutional Court.
“[The 2020 regional elections] are not finished yet as we still have election dispute hearings at the Constitutional Court. We must monitor them to avoid any conflict,” Tito said on Jan. 18 as quoted by Antara.
The House of Representatives previously approved a Rp 61 billion (US$4.3 million) budget for the Constitutional Court to handle 2020 regional election disputes.
Election watchdogs have slammed the government for insisting on holding the elections in December last year despite the high risk of COVID-19 transmission across the country. However, the government marched on with the elections, claiming that no new infection clusters had emerged after voting day.
Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Mahfud MD previously claimed that voter turnout had reached 75.82 percent, higher than the 69.02 percent turnout recorded during the 2015 elections.
The KPU initially targeted a 77.5 percent voter turnout from 100 million registered voters in 2020.
The Constitution and Democracy (KoDe) Initiative found 230 issues with the 2020 regional elections, most of which were related to money politics, voter suppression and mistreatment of campaign teams.
Civil society groups and the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) have also found other issues pertaining to COVID-19 health protocol violations, as well as technical and logistical constraints related to the distribution of personal protective equipment. (ami)
