MK’s Decision Does Not Necessarily Change the Result of Election

Any electoral legal suit granted by the Constitutional Court (MK) does not necessarily change the result of election. The decision made by MK usually mandates the Election Commission (KPU) to conduct recounting or re-polling.

“Not all electoral legal suit granted by MK change the end result of election. Most of the time, MK only mandates KPU to conduct another vote counting if the judges found any irregularity in the previous vote counting process. If judges of MK found any irregularity during the voting process, they would only mandated KPU to conduct re-polling. So, MK’s decision does not necessarily change the election result,” says a special staff of MK, Pan Mohamad Faiz, during a public discussion “Successful Local Elections, Successful Democracy”, in South Jakarta (10/19).

MK has the policy to only handle electoral dispute that may change the election result. If the legal suit does not have the potential to change the election result, MK will not process the legal suit.

“All judges of MK think that there will always be fraudulent or illicit maneuver in elections. What matters for MK is that the fraud has the potential to change the election result,” Mohamad says.

Candidate is allowed to submit legal suit regarding the election result no later than three business days after the announcement of election result by KPU. In previous regulation, the deadline was three consecutive days after the result announcement. [Amalia]