Central Jakarta District Court Orders Postponement Of Elections, Former Chief Justice Of The Constitutional Court Jimly Asshiddiqie: The Judge Deserves To Be Fired

Former Chief Justice Of The Constitutional Court (MK) Jimly Asshiddiqie/DOK ANTARA

JAKARTA - Former Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court (MK) Jimly Asshiddiqie emphasized that the district court was not authorized to order a postponement of the general election (election).

This is in response to the decision of the Central Jakarta District Court (PN) which issued a decision by ordering the General Elections Commission (KPU) to postpone the election until 2025.

According to Jimly, the decision on the civil lawsuit filed by the People's Fair and Prosperous Party (Prima) to the Central Jakarta District Court should not interfere with the stages of the election which is a public matter.

"The judge deserves to be fired because he is unprofessional, does not understand election law, and is unable to distinguish private (perdata) affairs from public affairs," Jimly told reporters, Friday, March 3.

Jimly explained that the civil court must limit itself only to civil matters. This member of the Indonesian House of Representatives explained that civil sanctions are sufficient with compensation, not delaying elections that are firm is the constitutional authority of the KPU.

"If there is a dispute about the process, then the authorities are Bawaslu and PTUN, not the civil court. If there is a dispute about the election results, then the authority is the Constitutional Court," he explained.

Initially, the Prima Party sued the KPU to the Central Jakarta District Court because it felt aggrieved by the election organizers. This is because the KPU stated that the Prima Party did not meet the requirements in undergoing registration and verification of political parties that would participate in the 2024 General Election.

As a result, the Prima Party could not continue the election stages to factual verification. The Prima Party did not accept it. In their study, Prima said that the KPU was not careful in carrying out administrative verification.

Prima considers the Political Party Information System (Sipol) problematic and causes the party to not qualify in the administrative verification stage.

Prima's civil lawsuit to the Central Jakarta District Court with the defendant, namely the Indonesian KPU, was filed on December 8. Central Jakarta District Court's decision came out with case number 757/Pdt.G/2022/PN Jkt.Pst on Thursday, March 2.

Berikuut is the sound of the decision of the Central Jakarta District Court: 1. Accept the plaintiff's claim in its entirety;2. State that the plaintiff is a political party that is harmed in administrative verification by the defendant; 3. State that the defendant has committed an unlawful act; 4. Punishing the defendant to pay material compensation of Rp500,000,000 to the Plaintiff;5. Punishing the defendant not to carry out the remaining stages of the 2024 General Election since this decision was pronounced and carrying out the stages of general election from the beginning for approximately 2 years and 4 months 7 days; 6. State that the decision of this case can be carried out first, legally (uitvoerbaar bij voorraad); 7. Setting the court fee charged to the defendant in the amount of Rp. 40,000.

KPU chairman Hasyim Asy'ari said that his party would file an appeal against the decision.