MK "Catch Up" Completes Preliminary Hearing on 2024 Legislative Election Dispute

Panel 1 is led by Chief Justice Suhartoyo with judges Guntur Hamzah and Daniel Yusmic P Foekh as members. Panel 3 is led by constitutional judge Arief Hidayat with Enny Nurbaningsih and Anwar Usman as members. Panel 2, on the other hand, is led by Vice Chairman of the Constitutional Court Saldi Isra with members Arsul Sani and Ridwan Mansyur.

Also read: A Look at the MK's "Kitchen" Handling Election Results Disputes

All matters that are the responsibility of panel 2 have been examined on Monday (6/5/2024), Tuesday (7/5/2024), and Wednesday (8/5/2024). All parties, including the applicant, the General Elections Commission (KPU), related parties, and the Election Monitoring Agency (Bawaslu), have given their testimonies.

Similarly, the evidence presented by all parties has been verified in the trial. Last Monday, the second panel held a session starting at 08.00 am and ended at 11:13 pm. The next day's session ended around 10:00 pm.

"After the (session) ends, the agenda will be taken to the Full Meeting of Judges' Deliberation (RPH) to present all the results of the session. After that, it will be decided which ones can proceed," said Enny.

Also read: Increasingly Orderly Management of MK Sessions

The composition of the division of cases is that panel 1 examined 103 cases, while panels 2 and 3 each examined 97 cases.

The Constitutional Court (MK) must complete the handling of the dispute over the general election results (PHPU) of the legislative election within 30 working days from the case being registered in the electronic constitutional case registration book (e-BRPK) on April 25, 2024. This means that the final verdict on the dispute submitted will be announced no later than June 10, 2024.

Also read: The story of the speakers behind the MK hearing

In the final hearing last Wednesday evening, Saldi Isra revealed that the dismissal decision was planned to be read out on Tuesday (21/5/2024) and Wednesday (22/5/2024).

"Notification that this trial will be postponed until further notice and these six cases will be brought to the RPH. The results will be notified to all parties, especially the schedule for pronunciation of the dismissal decision. "If I'm not mistaken, the schedule is May 21 and 22," said Saldi.

For applications that are decided to be continued to the next stage, Saldi said that parties can submit further evidence and also witnesses/experts to strengthen the arguments presented. Saldi also revealed that the hearing schedule would be determined according to the weight of the case submitted.

"For more serious cases, a longer schedule will be made, including taking into account the number of witnesses who will be presented," said Saldi.

In last Wednesday's hearing, the KPU refuted many arguments presented by the applicants. There were several reasons, one of which was a request to dismiss the case if the location of the voting station or an error in vote counting was not clearly stated by the applicant.

Also read: Judges Deciding Election Disputes

For more serious cases, a longer schedule will be made, including taking into account the number of witnesses who will be presented.

Applicants do not have legal standing if they do not have recommendations from the Chairman and Secretary General of the party. In addition, the KPU has also denied many allegations of errors in vote counting. For example, in the East Aceh 3 electoral district, the KPU denied claims of ballot rigging for one of the candidates for the East Aceh District DPRD.

In addition, the KPU denies allegations of vote rigging by Nasdem in Majalengka and Subang, West Java, as well as others. Not only vote rigging, but the KPU also denies allegations of vote reduction, both for legislative candidates and parties.