The Constitutional Court Still Accepts The Pilkada Lawsuit Even Though It Passes The Registration Time Limit

JAKARTA - Chairman of the Constitutional Court (MK) Suhartoyo said the Court would still accept a request for a lawsuit on the results of the regional head election (pilkada) even though the application was registered past the specified time limit.

"We must not reject the case," Suhartoyo said as quoted by ANTARA, Thursday, December 12.

Based on Article 7 paragraph (2) of the Constitutional Court Regulation Number 3 of 2024, applications for regional election disputes are submitted no later than 3 working days from the time the local KPU sets the votes for the election results.

Suhartoyo explained that the MK would still accept applications registered past the time limit because basically the constitutional guard institution should not reject the case.

"In principle, the court cannot reject the case. We will continue to process it later. Later, the judge will consider whether the application meets formal requirements or not," he continued.

The constitutional judge will determine whether or not the case will fall after going through judicial action. In this case, the judge will consider certain conditions.

"Special incidents can then be kept in relation to the formal requirements. So, special incidents can rule out formal conditions, but still case by case (case per case), yes, not everything is like that," explained Suhartoyo.

The Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court also said that the Court had received and continued to try cases of election disputes that were registered to exceed the time limit.

"There are some, yes. In fact, some have been granted," he said.

Judging from the MK website, the total lawsuit for the 2024 Pilkada dispute which was registered until 21.00 WIB reached 278 applications. This number consists of 15 requests for dispute over the results of the governor election, 216 applications regarding the results of the regent's election, and 47 other applications related to the mayor's election.

Referring to Constitutional Court Regulation Number 4 of 2024, the deadline for registering for this year's regional election dispute is December 18, 2024.

This is considering the last day of the KPU's determination of vote acquisition on December 16, 2024.

Meanwhile, MK Spokesperson Enny Nurbaningsih said the Court would immediately register the case that had been registered in the Electronic Constitutional Case Registration Book (e-BRPK).

After that, the Court will determine the distribution of panel judges.

The trial for examining regional election disputes was held using a panel trial method, each panel consisting of three constitutional judges. "All PHPU cases (Pilkada disputes, ed.) will soon be assisted by the BPK. We will immediately determine the distribution per panel, and the trial will begin in early January 2025," said Enny.