"The reopening of the registration process, including the verification and official announcement stages, is meant to give a chance to new candidates to register. They may be proposed by a political party or a coalition of political parties, or run as independent candidates. The reopening shall last seven days since this preliminary ruling is announced," MK Chairman Mahfud MD said at a hearing here on Tuesday.
According to Mahfud, the registration reopening for seven days must not change the date of the planned regional head elections, which had been set at February 16, 2012.
Constitutional Judge Harjono when reading out the considerations among other thing said that many parties had been unaware of the earlier registration period and they had realized it only when the registration period had ended.
The problem could have meant disregarding the rights of political parties or individuals who were actually entitled to nominate candidates for the regional head elections in Aceh, he said.
And such a condition had the potential of creating disturbances in the implementation of the elections and the running of the Aceh administration after the elections, he stated.
In response to the Constitutional Court`s decision, Imran Mahmudi, a lawyer of the Aceh Election Independent Commission (KIP) said KIP would implement the ruling.
"Since the beginning, the Aceh KIP had stated that whatever the legal ruling, we will implement it," Imran said.
Earlier, the home affairs ministry had requested the Constitutional Court to issue a preliminary ruling ordering the Aceh KIP to postpone the regional head elections in Indonesia`s northern most province.
"We request the judges council of MK to issue a preliminary ruling to postpone the preparatory stages for regional head elections until this request has been decided on," the ministry`s Regional Autonomy Director General Djoehermansyah said during a hearing on the ministry`s request at the MK building last Friday (Jan 13).
The ministry also asked the reopening of the registration process for candidates of governor-deputy governor, district head-deputy district head, and mayor-deputy mayor to give a chance to candidates from political parties and independent candidates for seven days since the issuance of the MK`s preliminary ruling.
According to Djoeher, the request was made because the government (the ministry) needed to see the process of the Aceh regional head elections run smoothly and peacefully.
If the local elections were held without the participation of the Aceh Party, security disturbances might occur, he said.
Djoeher told the press that the ministry wants to see regional head elections which are ideal, safe, peaceful and participated in by eligible candidates.
(Uu.F001/HAJM)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2012
