Candidates agree to settle electoral disputes in court

Muninggar Sri Saraswati Jakarta

Three pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates agreed on Saturday to settle any disputes that may arise from the July 5 election in the newly established Constitutional Court.

Gen. (ret) Wiranto and running mate Solahuddin Wahid of the Golkar Party, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of the Democratic Party (DP) and Siswono Yudohusodo of the National Mandate Party (PAN) conveyed their pledges during a meeting with the court.

The candidates came to the court without being accompanied by their respective campaign managers and aides.

The pairings of Megawati Soekarnoputri and Hasyim Muzaid, and Hamzah Has and Agum Gumelar were not present at the meeting, which was supposed to have been attended by all five tickets. No explanations were forthcoming.

"We, Pak Amien and I, are prepared to be good winners and, at the same time, gracious losers," said Siswono.

He also said his campaign managers were trying to do their best to adhere to the rules during the presidential campaign.

The country will hold its first ever direct presidential election on July 5, with the official campaign period running from June 1 through July 1. Five presidential tickets have been declared eligible to contest the election.

Susilo, who was not accompanied by his running mate, Jusuf Kalla, said the dispute settlement mechanisms were essential for ensuring a fair election.

"We all expect fair, transparent and accountable procedures to be applied during the election, and hope that these will be capable of reducing irregularities such as abuses of power, bribery or violence," he told the meeting.

Wiranto said that the dispute settlement mechanisms were a good way of resolving the sort of problems that normally arose after an election.

"Conflicts commonly occur after elections. It even happens during the election of village heads," said Wiranto, who also asked the court to inform the public of its electoral dispute settlement mechanisms.

Under the prevailing legislation, among the Constitutional Court's duties is the resolution of electoral disputes.

Constitutional Court President Jimly Asshidiqie told the meeting that he expected all the candidates to be good winners and gracious losers, as the case may be.

"If you lose the race, the first thing you have to do is to congratulate the winner. If that happens, all the Indonesian people will concur with their leaders' acceptance of the results, and there will be no disputes," he said.

However, Jimly told each ticket's campaign strategists to deploy poll monitors across the country and save all the relevant documents in case they later wished to file complaints with the court over the election's outcome.

"We only have 14 days to deal with all the complaints," he said.

Meanwhile, General Elections Commission deputy chairman Ramlan Surbakti asked the court to dispose of all complaints within 10 days.

"We must announce the results of the election on July 27 in order to adhere to the schedule for the printing of ballot papers starting on Aug. 6 should it be necessary to hold a second round on Sept. 5. So, hopefully you will be able to dispose of all the cases within less than 14 days," he said.