Court issues first verdict in interparty dispute
Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta
The Prosperous Peace Party (PDS) gained an additional seat in the House of Representatives on Monday thanks to the Constitutional Court's first verdict in an interparty election dispute trial.
A total of 287 election suits have been filed by 23 political parties and Regional Representatives Council candidates with the court, which must resolve all disputes by June 20. Only the Indonesia Nahdlatul Community Party (PPNUI) did not file a suit.
On Monday a panel of nine judges ruled that the Christian- based PDS garnered a total of 30,812 votes in West Papua province in the April 5 legislative election, compared to the General Elections Commission (KPU)'s tally of 23,412 for the party.
"The KPU failed to count as many as 7,400 votes the party garnered in Sorong regency," Constitutional Court chairman Jimly Asshidiqie said.
The verdict gave the PDS a total of 13 seats in the House. The decision also meant the United Democratic Nationhood Party (PPDK) lost one of its five seats in the House. The party did not contest the verdict.
Amir Syamsuddin, who represented the KPU in the dispute, said the commission would soon execute the court's decision, which is final and binding.
The court, however, rejected 11 other election lawsuits filed by the PDS because of lack of evidence or for administrative reasons.
It did grant two petitions filed by the Golkar Party concerning the North Aceh and Muaro Jambi regencies. The court said the KPU made a mistake in the ballot count at Electoral District 6 in North Aceh.
According to the court, Golkar received 1,489 more votes in North Aceh then it was credited for in the KPU's tally of 8,954 votes.
It also said that Golkar received 11,199 votes in Electoral District 2 in Muaro Jambi regency, not the 10,668 announced by the KPU.
The verdicts gave Golkar one seat each in the North Aceh and Muaro Jambi regency legislatures.
The court, however, rejected Golkar's claim that it should receive four additional seats in the House from the Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, North Sumatra, Central Sulawesi and South Sulawesi electoral districts because of administrative errors.
The court also rejected eight suits filed by the Indonesian Justice and Unity Party (PKP Indonesia), the PPDK and the Indonesian Unity Party (PSI) because of administrative matters.
According to Jimly, the three parties failed to provide sufficient evidence and did not follow administrative procedures when filing the suits. He did not elaborate.
Jumhur Hidayat, the secretary-general of the PSI, expressed disappointment over the verdict, saying the court failed to live up to its duty.
"We will hold a rally soon. They didn't do their job properly. They didn't examine our evidence," he said after the hearing.
The settlement of electoral disputes in the Constitutional Court is a new phenomenon for the country, which adopted new systems for both the legislative and presidential elections this year.
The court had warned that its verdicts in electoral disputes could change seat distributions in the legislative bodies.
It has asked both the police and the leaders of the 24 political parties that contested the April 5 legislative election to encourage people to accept the court's decisions.