COURT VERDICT ON ELECTION DISPUTE GOOD FOR NATION

By Andi Abdussalam


        Jakarta, Aug 12 (ANTARA) - The Constitutional Court (MK) decision on Wednesday over an election dispute is the best for the nation because it has considered all aspects, while Megawati and Jusuf Kalla who filed lawsuits are expected to accept it wholeheartedly so that the General Elections Commission (KPK) could focus on its next tasks, observers say.

        "Should the MK accept the lawsuits and decide to call for an election rerun, it would create uncertainties and seriously affect the economy as well as business players, investors in particular," political observer Sanggam Hutapea said after attending the MK hearing on Wednesday.

        The Constitutional Court on Wednesday rejected the lawsuits on a election dispute filed by two presidential candidates, Megawati Soekarnoputri and Jusuf Kala.

        It said that the various problems found in the recent presidential election were not structural, systematic and massive and therefore the election was valid.

        "(The violations) did not make the election legally flawed or invalid," chief judge Moh Mahfud MD said when reading out the court's decision regarding the dispute over the results of the presidential election on July 8.

        The Megawati-Prabowo and Jusuf Kalla-Wiranto tickets have filed complaints to the court regarding the results of the election that gave incumbent President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono the most votes.

        According to the court's judges, the problems found in the election process which were qualitative in nature included the problem of fixed voter list, regrouping of polling stations and the spread of illegal C-1 forms of vote recapitulation.

        The KPU at a plenary session on July 25 announced that the Susilo Bambang Yudhyoyono (SBY)-Boediono pair had won 73,874,562 or 60.80 percent, the Megawati Soekarnoputri-Prabowo Subianto duo collected 32,548,105 or 26.79 percent, and the Jusuf Kalla-Wiranto ticket 15,081,814 or 12.41 percent of the votes.

        Following the announcement, Megawati and Kalla reported numerous irregularities that allegedly happened in the July 8 poll to the Constitutional Court (MK) in what appeared to be a move to challenge the legitimacy of the election's official outcome.

        Political observer Sanggam Hutapea said that the KPU and the government should learn a lot of lessons from the lawsuit filed with the MK because it suggested that the KPU and the government still had to do many things in organizing a general election. The government should give a priority to improving its data and population system in the coming five years.

        "If the population data remains unsettled it would continue to pose a problem to the government both when it holds an election and when it is implementing its other programs such as the distribution of cash assistance for the poor," he said.

        In the meantime, constitutional law observer Yulindri of the University of Andalas (Unand) said that the MK in its decision to reject the lawsuits filed by Megawati and Kalla had considered all aspects.

        "I am sure that the MK has considered all the aspects such as all evidence provided by Megawati and Kalla camps," Yuliandri, who is legislation professor of the Padang-based (West Sumatra) University of Andalas, said.

        He said that basically the MK verdict formally justified the KPU's decision which declared the SBY-Boediono pair as the winner of the July 8, 2009 presidential elections.

        Therefore, according to political observer Teguh Yuwono of the Semarang-based (Central Java) Diponegoro University (Undip), Megawati and Jusuf Kalla should wholeheartedly accept the MK's decision.

        "The Constitutional Court's verdict is binding and final, so that all sides, including the Mega-Prabowo and JK-Win pairs, should accept it," Yuwono said. He said that actually there was nothing new with the MK verdict which indirectly gave the victory to the SBY-Boediono pair because this pair had actually won the July 8 elections.

        The voter turnouts won by the SBY-Boediono presidential and vice presidential aspirants exceeded too far those of the other presidential candidate pairs. Although the votes won by the other two presidential contestants are combined, they still could not defeat those of the SBY-Boediono ticket.

        "Therefore, the Mega-Prabowo and JK-WIN pairs must accept the MK verdict sincerely and use their energy to fill in the development by becoming oppositions to supervise the government in carrying out its programs," he said.

        With the acceptance, the KPU would be able to concentrate on its next tasks.

        The KPU will therefore soon declare presidential candidate Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his running mate Boediono as president- and vice president-elect based on the outcome of the July 8, 2009 presidential race.

        KPU member Andi Nurpati said that the KPU would officially issue the declaration following the verdict on Wednesday of the Constitutional Court (MK) which rejected the lawsuit.

        "With the rejection by the MK of the lawsuit by the other two presidential pairs, KPU's next step is to officially declare the president and vice president-elect," she said.

        She said that KPU would of course focus on its next tasks such as preparing the swearing-in and inauguration of newly elected members of the House of Representatives (DPR) as well as the inauguration of the president- and vice president-elect.

        The oath-taking of the new legislators will be conducted on October 1, 2009 and the inauguration of the new president will be held on October 20, 2009.

        Besides preparing the two agendas, the KPU will also begin preparing the implementation of regional head elections to be held in 2010 and 2011.

        "We have established coordination with KPU offices in the provinces to carry out the next agenda," Andi said. ***1*** (T.A014/H-NG/A/H-YH)

       

        (T.A014/A/A014/A/H-YH) 12-08-2009 22:41:11