Court has no authority to settle poll disputes

JAKARTA LIFE'S STYLE. The Supreme Court has no authority to resolve election disputes, so the General Elections Commission (KPU) does not need to obey the Court's recent ruling, a discussion was told Friday.

The Supreme Court annulled the KPU's second phase of counting results of the April 9 legislative elections on June 18.

"In the Constitution, there is not a single clause that stipulates the Supreme Court has any authority on election disputes," said Tjipta Lesmana, a legal expert from Pelita Harapan University.

"The Constitution clearly says that such disputes are in the domain of the Constitutional Court."

Tjipta said the Constitution also stipulated that the Supreme Court's authority on judicial reviews only covered legislation that is part of the country's legal structure.

"That structure consists of the Constitution, government regulations in lieu of law, government regulations, presidential decrees and regional regulations," he said.

"The KPU's regulation and decisions are not included in the structure so they cannot be judicially reviewed."

In its decision, the Supreme Court ruled that the second phase of vote counting by the KPU was incorrect.

The KPU's interpretation is that the second phase of seat calculations included only the remaining eligible votes from the first phase of calculations. This provided a chance for parties, which failed to obtain any seats in the first phase, to win seats in the second round.

However, the Supreme Court ruled that the votes used by the winning parties in the first phase were to be used again in the second phase, costing parties with smaller votes their legislative seats.

That ruling would mean that at least 66 seats would be allocated to major parties at the expense of minor parties at the House of Representatives, according to a calculations by the Center for Electoral Reform (Cetro).

Around 1,300 regional legislative council seats would be transferred nationwide if the court ruling was implemented.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party could benefit the most by gaining an extra 31 seats at the House. Two other major parties, the Golkar Party and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), are also set to benefit from the ruling, and will likely receive between 16 and 19 seats each.

Golkar could see its 106 seats rise to 125, while the PDI-P could end up with 111, from an original 95.

Five minor parties would have their seats at the House reduced. Prabowo Subianto's Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) and Wiranto's People's Conscience Party (Hanura) would suffer the most from the ruling, losing 10 and six seats respectively.

An expert from the Surakarta Muhhamadiyah University (UMS), Aidil Fitri, said that in his opinion, the Supreme Court could judicially review the KPU's counting and issue a ruling based on the review.