President's Seat May Be Vacant If Anies and Ganjar's Lawsuit Granted: Expert

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Aminuddin Ilmar, a legal expert from the Prabowo-Gibran camp, talked about the possible implications if the Constitutional Court (MK) rules in favor of Anies Baswedan and Ganjar Pranowo in the presidential election dispute.

The court, he underlined, should consider exercising its authority exclusively to decide disputes over election results, in accordance with Law No. 7/2017 on elections. Administrative violations are addressed by the Election Supervisory Board (Bawaslu), while disputes over the election process are handled by the General Election Commission (KPU).

Meanwhile, the disputes lodged by the Anies-Muhaimin camp and the Ganjar-Mahfud camp are related to fraud in the election process. “The court should not rule on anything other than disputes over election results,” Amirudin said during a hearing at the Constitutional Court Building, Jakarta on Thursday, April 4.

The professor at the Faculty of Law of Hasanuddin University argued that if the panel of judges issued opinions beyond its mandate, it would certainly lead to a constitutional crisis that had never happened before.

“This would mean that the transition process of the national leadership will not be realized for sure. As a legal consequence, the posts of president and vice president will be vacant given that [the current posts will] end in October 2024,” Aminuddin said.

Therefore, he strongly advised the Constitutional Court to exercise prudence and discretion when deciding the disputes over the results of the general elections brought forth by Anies Baswedan and Ganjar Pranowo.

AMELIA RAHIMA SARI

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