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.