Court limits cases on ballot disputes

Court limits cases on ballot disputes

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Candidates of the Regional Representatives Council (DPD) are able
to submit their cases to the Constitutional Court if they are not
satisfied with the legislative election results.

This is stipulated in new guidelines on dispute resolution
issued by the Constitutional Court early this week.

Apart from DPD candidates, the guidelines also makes it
possible for presidential and vice presidential hopefuls as well
as representatives of political parties to lodge their
complaints.

Legislative candidates from political parties who run for
either the House of Representatives (DPR) or the regional
legislative council (DPRD) are not eligible to file an objection
with the court.

The court will handle only those cases approved by the General
Elections Commission (KPU). The KPU will approve cases if they
"affect the winning of candidates of the Regional Representatives
Council (DPD), the ticket for pairs of presidential and vice
presidential aspirants in the runoff as well as the seats for
political parties in electoral districts."

The guidelines also stipulate that plaintiffs must register
their cases within three days after the KPU announces the
election results. The KPU is expected to announce the final
election results on April 26.

"The court would deliver the decision within 30 days in cases
involving the DPD and political parties objections and 14 days in
complaints submitted by presidential candidates," the guidelines
say.

Separately, the court's secretary-general Oka Mahendra said
early this week that his office anticipated receiving a huge
number of cases from around the country and was ready to hear
election-linked disputes.

"DPD candidates may send their application by fax because they
represent themselves," he said, citing the court's fax number
(021) 3524261, 3863866, 3520705 or 3863864.

Oka also said that the court had set up a team to help nine
judges in dealing with incoming cases. The team will assess
possible problems that could create dispute, prepare data and
provide information to help the judges, "because election
disputes must be settled very quickly".

The team comprises several constitutional law experts, led by
Satya Arinanto of the University of Indonesia in Jakarta and
Riswandha Imawan of Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta.