- Poll disputes to be tried via video link
Saturday, April 24, 2004
PC Naommy, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Constitutional Court will use videoconferencing to facilitate hearings on election outcome disputes from all across the country.
"This technology will make our jobs easier and save time in hearing witnesses' testimonies from all across the country," Constitutional Court chief Jimly Asshiddique said on Friday.
Jimly said time constraints were a problem for the court, which expects to hear thousands of cases. "We have so little time with so much to do".
According to the court's practice and administration guidebook, the judges have to settle all disputes related to the outcome of legislative elections within a maximum of 30 days, while the period allotted for the resolution of disputes over the presidential elections is only 14 days. The hearing of a case must commence within three days after it is filed with the court.
Apropos of the announcement, Jimly was speaking on the sidelines of a videoconference meeting with representatives of the regional General Election Commissions (KPU), the regional Election Supervisory Bodies (Panwaslu), political parties and the Regional Legislative Councils (DPD) to inaugurate the use of the video link ups to be used for long-distance court hearings.
Indonesia's courts have previously used live video feeds to hear testimony from witnesses living overseas. A videoconference hearing took place almost two years ago at the South Jakarta District Court, when the judge heard testimony from former president BJ Habibie, who was in Hamburg, Germany, in the corruption scandal involving Golkar Party leader Akbar Tandjung.
At the trial Habibie's testimony was admitted by the judge as a matter of court record.
The second such hearing was during the trial of Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, when the judges heard testimony from several Jamaah Islamiyah detainees via a video feed from Singapore.
In the Ba'asyir case, however, the judges refused to allow their powerful evidence to be part of the court record, saying that there was no legal basis to support the use of such technology.
Asked about the legal basis for the technology, Jimly said that Law No. 23/2003 on Constitutional Court acknowledges the use of electronic evidence and long-distance testimony for court sessions.
Article 3 of this law says that a court session on election disputes can be categorized as an exclusive issue, for which the trial should be facilitated.
Jimly added that during the videoconference, his team also familiarized all the participants with what types of cases could be filed with the court.
"Cases on money politics, and vote calculations at polling stations do not fall under our authority. They are under the authority of the KPU, Panwaslu or the police if criminal violations are involved," said Jimly.
The complaints which can be filed with the Constitutional Court are those arising from KPU's announcement of election outcomes. Only political parties and Regional Representative Council candidates are allowed to file complaints.
According to the KPU schedule, the outcome of the legislative elections will be announced between April 26 and April 28. The outcome of presidential election will be announced on July 26, and if a run-off election is required, the announcement will be made between Oct. 5 and Oct. 12.