Experts urge review of Depok ruling

Experts urge review of Depok ruling

Hera Diani and Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta/Bandung

The Supreme Court should review the ruling of the West Java High
Court on the Depok electoral dispute amid growing protests and
questions over the controversial verdict.

Ana Erliana, an administrative law expert from the University
of Indonesia, said that both Law No. 32/2004 on local
administration and Supreme Court Directive No. 2/2005 on
petitions challenging the results of local elections authorize
the relevant high court to settle a local election dispute.

"The ruling by the high court is final and conclusive.
However, if widespread disorder and dissatisfaction results, the
Supreme Court must examine the ruling," she told The Jakarta Post
on Monday.

Voicing a similar opinion, legal expert Bambang Widjojanto
said that the judges of the West Java High Court had exceeded its
jurisdiction.

"The court is authorized to settle disputes over vote
counting. Therefore, the whole court process should be devoted to
seeing whether the count was properly carried out. But instead,
the court questioned the eligibility of people to vote," Bambang
told the Post.

"If the Supreme Court does not take a firm stance in this
regard, it would set a bad precedent," he added.

Last Friday, the West Java High Court annulled the victory of
Nur Mahmudi Ismail of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) in the
June 26 election for Depok mayor, and declared Golkar Party
candidate Badrul Kamal as the winner. The Court ruled that
27,782 votes had been incorrectly given to Nur Mahmudi, and
62,770 votes taken away from Badrul.

However, many have protested the ruling as it was based mostly
on evidence given by Badrul supporters during the hearing, while
no Nur Mahmudi supporters were summoned to testify.

Non-governmental organization, the Center for Electoral Reform
(CETRO), said in a press release on Monday that only one Badrul
supporter had testified about counting errors, but the number of
votes involved was insignificant: only around 100 instead of the
3,480 claimed by Badrul.

CETRO said that in an electoral dispute, there needed to be
clear evidence of the number of votes involved.

It urged the Supreme Court to investigate the judges and take
over all electoral disputes.

Meanwhile, Supreme Court registrar Satri Rusad said that the
justices had yet to take a stance on the current protests over
the West Java High Court ruling.

But he believed that the court's ruling was legitimate.

Meanwhile, presidential spokesperson Andi Mallarangeng said
that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono would not interfere in
this case as the legal process was still ongoing.

"The results of local elections are determined by an
independent election commission. There is also the Judicial
Commission. So, let's just see how the legal process ends up. The
technical authority to follow up the court's ruling rests in the
hands of the minister of home affairs," Andi told reporters.

In Bandung, some 1,000 supporters of Badrul and around 2,000
supporters of Nurmahmudi staged demonstrations on Monday in front
of the West Java High Court building as well as at the West Java
gubernatorial and council offices.

Badrul's supporters, who called themselves the Indonesian
Grassroots Community Movement (GMBI) and came from Garut, ran
amok at the council building looking for PKS councillors

Law No. 32/2004 on local administration

Article 106 (6): The Supreme Court shall delegate jurisdiction to
the High Court to rule on electoral disputes arising out of
regental/municipal and gubernatorial elections.

Article 106 (7): A decision of the High Court as described in
Article 106 (6) shall be of final and conclusive effect.