Rumah Pemilu Indonesia Election Portal
The Elections Commission (KPU) rejected the registration of thirteen political parties. The Elections Monitoring Body (Bawaslu) anticipating incoming lawsuit.
The Elections Commission rejected registration application from thirteen political parties. We can see this from the data available on the Political Party Information System (Sipol) which can be accessed by the public. The reason behind the rejection: those thirteen parties failed to submit all the required documents in time.
To these thirteen parties, KPU do not give them the proof of valid registration. KPU only give them list of documents that have been assessed and documents that have not. KPU also do not include this rejection in their final decree of the registration process.
Viryan, a KPU member, admits KPU only update the data in Sipol, which shows what parties are accepted and what parties are not, after public demand. The official result of the registration process will be included in the KPU decree which will be issued on February 17th. KPU is referring to Article 62 of KPU Regulations No.11/2017 which states that the final decree of registration process shall only be issued after the registration application, administrative assessment, and factual verification process, have been duly conducted.
“The public demanded that we provide full information on which party is accepted and which is not. So we updated the Sipol,” says Viryan (10/19).
Meanwhile, Bawaslu members argue that the Elections Law mandates election management bodies (EMBs) to separate the registration process from the factual verification process. Rahmat Bagja, a Bawaslu member, refers to Article 180 Paragraph (1) of the Elections Law: Bawaslu shall conduct monitoring process over the factual verification process conducted by KPU.
“The Law does not require us to monitor the registration process. Therefore, we consider the registration process as something separate from the factual verification process. But KPU, through its KPU Regulations, have made those two process as series of a single process,” says Rahmat.
Rahmat then says that it would be difficult for rejected political parties to file a lawsuit against KPU decision since KPU has not issued any legal decree on the registration result.
“The object of dispute should be KPU’s decree. Can political parties file a lawsuit over the list of assessed documents provided KPU? I don’t think they can,” says Rahmat.
Veri Junaidi, the Chairman of the Initiative for Constitution and Democracy (KoDe Inisiatif), says, KPU and Bawaslu can discuss what object of dispute that can be sued by political parties. This is important to guarantee the constitutional rights of political party to participate in elections.
After KPU and Bawaslu are agree upon the object of dispute, according to Veri, there should be a dispute resolution mechanism that heeds to the free and fair election principle. KPU should be heeded. Political parties should also be heeded.
Veri also recommends that the dispute resolution process should be done in four steps. First, the submission of lawsuit by political party. Second, Bawaslu accepting the lawsuit. Third, the resolution process which includes deliberative process between the two conflicting parties. Fourth, Bawaslu issuing the final decision.
“I think Bawaslu should immediately prepare a legal basis to handle electoral dispute regarding registration process in order to maintain the constitutional rights of political party to participate in elections,” says Veri.
