The Constitutional Court and Local Election Disputes Settlement

By:

Iwan Satriawan

Septi Nur Wijayanti

Lutu Dwi Prastanta

Centre for the Constitution and Governance Studies

Faculty of Law

Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta

Ring Road Barat, Tamantirto, Kasihan, Yogyakarta, 55183

Phone: +62 274 387 656 #126, Fax: +62 274 387 646

Email: satria@justice.com ,  ldwiprastanta@yahoo.com

 

Abstract

The Constitutional Court has received 477 cases of local election disputes since the authority of settling local election dispute had been moved from the Supreme Court to the Constitutional Court. Based on the data, it can be stated that the number of local election disputes that brought to the Constitutional Court is very huge. The issue is the cases have to finish within 14 days after registration with limited number of justices, 9 justices. Therefore, it is interesting to study the effectiveness of local election disputes in the Constitutional Court. The research is a doctrinal research or normative research. The research also used historical and case approach through the Constitutional Court decisions, journal as well as comments on cases and legislation relating to the Constitutional Court. The result of research shows that the Constitutional Court is able to settle the local election disputes. However, from managerial perspective and litigant interest, the local election disputes settlement worked ineffectively. Ineffectiveness of the settlement caused by two main factors: structural-institutional factor and number of cases factor brought to the Constitutional Court. Structural-institutional factors are as follows: centralization of structure, limited number of justices (only 9 justices) and 14 days period of settlement. In addition, ineffectiveness of local election disputes settlement is also caused by huge number of cases and broad nature of Indonesian geography.

Key Words: Effectiveness, Local Election Dispute, Constitutional Court