Mahfud Quoted His 2014 Speech About The Constitutional Court Not Just A Court Of Calculators, Yusril: Not Relevant

Chairman Of The Prabowo-Gibran Legal Team, Yusril Ihza Mahendra/PHOTO: Diah Ayu-VOI

JAKARTA - The head of the Prabowo-Gibran Legal Team, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, replied to the statement by the presidential candidate number 3 Mahfud MD quoting his statement regarding the Constitutional Court (MK).

Mahfud previously alluded to Yusril's statement in 2014 that considered the Constitutional Court not only limited to providing an assessment of the number or number of votes on disputes over general election results (PHPU).

However, his statement quoted by Mahfud, according to Yusril, is no longer relevant to the current conditions.

"It is irrelevant, Prof. Mahfud, to quote the opinion of'mahaguru' Prof. Yusril Ihza Mahendra, who once said that the Constitutional Court should not be just a Kalkullator Court," said Yusril at the Constitutional Court hearing, Thursday, March 28.

Yusril emphasized that he made this statement three years before the issuance of Law Number 7 of 2017 concerning Elections with all its changes. According to Yusril, the regulation has detailed regulated the authority of each law enforcement agency in resolving cases.

"With the regulation on the division of authority in handling election process disputes through Bawaslu, PTUN, and MA in administrative disputes, and disputes over results by the Constitutional Court since 2017," said Yusril.

Previously in the inaugural trial of the 2024 presidential election dispute, Mahfud MD slipped Yusril Ihza Mahendra's statement as an expert on constitutional law in 2014 regarding the Constitutional Court's assessment of the election results.

Yusril is now the Head of the Prabowo-Gibran Defenders Team in facing a lawsuit over the 2024 presidential election dispute as a related party. Mahfud mentioned Yusril's past statement, namely the view that the Constitutional Court is not limited to assessing the number or number of votes in handling the lawsuit.

"Professional Law Teacher Prof. Yusril Ihza Mahendra when he was an expert in the 2014 election results dispute and testified at the Constitutional Court, as widely circulated on July 15, 2014, saying that the assessment of the election process, which is not only in the numbers, must be carried out by the Constitutional Court," Mahfud said at the Constitutional Court session, Wednesday, March 27.

So, according to Mahfud, the Constitutional Court does not only work as a liter court. However, it also assesses violations during the election process submitted in the main case of the lawsuit

"Make the Constitutional Court just a Court of Calculators is what is actually an old, updated view," said Mahfud.