Constitutional Court Judges are Worried that the Regional Elections in Aceh and Papua are Chaotic

It is feared that the implementation of the 2024 regional elections in Aceh and Papua will be chaotic if there is no strengthening of the capacity of the organizers.

KOMPAS/RONY ARIYANTO NUGROHO

Constitutional Judge Arief Hidayat led the hearing of the dispute over the results of the legislative election in panel 3 at the Constitutional Court, Jakarta on Thursday (May 2, 2024).

JAKARTA, KOMPAS - The Constitutional Court asked the Indonesian General Election Commission to strengthen the capacity of election organizers in Aceh and Papua. This is because a number of disputes over legislative election results at the Constitutional Court in the two regions were also caused by election organizer factors. Without strengthening the capacity of organizers, it is feared that the 2024 Regional Head Election in Aceh and Papua will be chaotic.

Constitutional Judge Arief Hidayat has stated that a number of issues revealed during the hearing of the disputes over the results of the legislative election in Aceh and Papua were also caused by factors related to the election organizers. This has resulted in some election participants feeling disadvantaged, and they have continued to challenge it all the way to the Constitutional Court (MK).

Some of them are suggestions for improvement from the Election Supervisory Body (Bawaslu) which were not followed up by the General Election Commission (KPU). Apart from that, Bawaslu found differences in the recapitulation results in several places, even though the tiered recapitulation process was not revealed. In fact, these various problems should be resolved in the regions without having to go to the Constitutional Court.

”That will happen if the pilkada (regional head election) becomes even more chaotic. There could be chaos in the area if the organizers are not correct,yes. This is something to pay attention to in the future because we will start the regional elections in November. "We must be very careful to improve it, yes, Papua and Aceh, especially the Bawaslu findings," said Arief during the follow-up session of the PHPU legislative election in panel 3 which took place at the Constitutional Court Building, Jakarta, Wednesday (8/5/2024).

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INSTAGRAM MAHKAMAH KONSTITUSI

Recapitulation of the list of PHPU Legislative Election cases at the Constitutional Court by province

Arief's notes are in line with the recapitulation of the 2024 legislative election dispute cases by province. Central Papua is the province with the highest number of legislative election dispute cases, with a total of 24 cases. Meanwhile, legislative election dispute cases in five other provinces in Papua are Southwestern West Papua (5 cases), Mountainous Papua (19 cases), South Papua (5 cases), West Papua (8 cases), and Papua (17 cases).

Meanwhile, the number of election dispute cases in the local legislative councils in Aceh has reached 21 cases, placing them second after Central Papua. As for the election disputes in the regional representative councils, Central Papua and South Papua have two cases each.

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Arief reminded that the KPU must be able to hold the 2024 Regional Elections in Aceh and Papua well. If there are problems, they should be resolved locally so that the issues do not need to continue up to the Constitutional Court (MK).

On the other hand, Bawaslu should be more careful in overseeing the stages of vote recapitulation. Findings should already exist during the recapitulation process so that they can be immediately corrected. Because findings will not be meaningful if the time is already too late.

"If possible, it doesn't have to go to the Constitutional Court. It's already finished as best as it can be if the implementation is good. If it's like this, then the Constitutional Court has to resolve everything," said Arief.

Also read: Bawaslu Whistle Still Considered Silent

ANTARA/GUSTI TANATI

Residents of Papua visited polling stations to exercise their voting rights in the 2024 General Election in Yalinggume Village, Piramid District, Jayawijaya Regency, Papua Mountains Province on Wednesday (14/2/2024).

Due to various issues with the implementation of elections in Aceh and Papua, Arief requested that the Electoral Commission strengthen the capacity of organizers in both regions. There is still about six months before the regional elections scheduled for November 2024 to fix the problems that arose during the 2024 elections to avoid their repetition.

Also read: Indications of election fraud should not be ignored, they could be repeated in the 2024 regional elections

Arief warned that problems caused by election organizing factors should not occur again during the regional elections.

"For the attention of the Indonesian General Election Commission (KPU RI), there is still quite some time, a few months, to be able to fix it. If it is indeed incorrect or incapable, the organizers should be replaced," said Arief.