MK Dismisses Challenges to Prabowo-Gibran's Election Win

The verdict was read out by Chief Justice Suhartoyo during the election dispute verdict hearing at the Constitutional Court Chamber here on Monday (22/4/2024).

The two camps filed their election petitions challenging the results separately, and the MK justices read out the verdict, which rejected the legal challenges lodged by the two candidate pairs, in succession at the same hearing session.

The court concluded that the requests by Anies-Muhaimin and Ganjar-Mahfud to annul Prabowo-Gibran's election win were legally not reasonable.

Five out of eight justices ruled against the challenges. Meanwhile, three justices -- Saldi Isra, Enny Nurbaningsih, and Arief Hidayat -- offered dissenting opinions to the two verdicts.

Justice Anwar Usman did not participate in ruling the election dispute following an earlier MK Honorary Council instruction barring him from ruling in election disputes that potentially caused a conflict of interest.

Usman is Gibran's uncle and the brother-in-law of President Joko Widodo.

Candidate pairs Anies-Muhaimin and Ganjar-Mahfud have contested the election results following their defeat to Prabowo-Gibran in the February 14 poll.

After the conclusion of the hearing on April 16 and the justices' verdict deliberation on April 21, Chief Justice Suhartoyo opened the election dispute verdict hearing on Monday at 8:59 a.m. Jakarta time.

The plaintiffs have both urged the MK to annul the General Elections Commission (KPU) Decision No. 360 of 2024 declaring Prabowo Subianto and Gibran Rakabuming Raka as candidates with the highest votes in the Presidential Election.

They have also urged the court to decide in favor of the disqualification of Prabowo-Gibran and order a repeat election without Prabowo-Gibran.

As an alternative to Prabowo-Gibran's disqualification, the Anies-Muhaimin pair offered a second option to the court, which was to order a repeat election with Prabowo allowed to stand, provided that he picks a new vice-presidential candidate.

In addition, the Anies-Muhaimin pair also appealed to the court to instruct the president to maintain his neutrality and to not mobilize state apparatus and utilize the state budget to favor a presidential candidate if the election is repeated.*ant