Supreme Court upholds PKS win in Depok poll

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Members of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) were reveling on Friday after a victory in a protracted legal dispute over the coveted Depok mayoral post.

A panel of five Supreme Court justices unanimously ruled in favor of PKS candidates Nur Mahmudi Nur Ismail and Yuyun Wirasaputra, whose victory in the June 26 election had later been overturned by the West Java High Court.

"The Supreme Court considers the high court's verdict was based only on assumptions, not facts," justice Djoko Sarwono said, as reported by Antara.

The decision opens the way for the newly established Judicial Commission to further investigate the high court's decision to see if foul play was involved.

Nur Mahmudi, a former PKS leader and forestry minister, said the Supreme Court ruling was "a victory for Depok people".

The Supreme Court hearing revolved around the West Java High Court's decision to award Golkar Party candidate Badrul Kamal and running-mate Syihabuddin Ahmad the posts of mayor and deputy mayor in August.

Badrul's camp had contested Nur Mahmudi's win, citing alleged violations committed by the Depok General Elections Commission and Nur Mahmudi's followers. According to Badrul's camp, the many people who were supposed to have voted for him had been denied access to polling booths.

Responding to the complaint, the West Java High Court pushed up Badrul's final vote tally to 269,551 at the expense of Nur Mahmudi, whose votes were reduced to 204,828.

Many observers questioned the high court's verdict, saying the judges had jumped to an erroneous conclusion that those who had failed to cast ballots would automatically vote for Badrul. They said the election result was determined by several judges, not the voters.

The Judicial Commission also questioned the high court's decision and concluded its verdict was legally flawed.

As the controversy dragged on, the government suspended the inauguration of Badrul and Syihabuddin, pending the result of the Supreme Court hearing.

Djoko said the Supreme Court was aware of the heated debate about whether it should hear the case, since Law No. 32/2004 on Regional Administrations stipulates that a high court's ruling on elections is final and legally binding.

"The justices agreed that they had to make the public's sense of justice the priority," he said. "Moreover, according to the same law, the high court's decision was not valid because it heard the case although period for a contestant to file complaints had expired."

A contender must file their complaints no later than 14 days after the regional elections commission endorses the election results.

"The Depok Elections Commission's decision (on the result of the mayoral election) is now valid," Djoko said.

He said the Supreme Court was prepared to hear more appeals filed by election contenders who had contested high court rulings.

"That's the risk we have to take, but we will only hear cases if we find gross violations (in the high court's ruling)," he said.

PKS West Java leader Yudi Widiana said Minister of Home Affairs M. Ma'ruf should immediately issue a decree that formalized the Supreme Court's ruling.

Meanwhile, Badrul's lawyer, Albert M. Sagala, questioned the verdict, citing a 2005 ministerial regulation that stipulates that a case review of a high court's ruling is illegal.