RI to host 7th Asian court conference

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Fri, 06/18/2010 10:16 AM

Indonesia’s Constitutional Court will host the 7th Conference of Asian Constitutional Court Judges, which will take general election laws and constitutional practices as its theme, from July 12 to 15.

“A nation cannot restrain nor avoid the establishment of democracy and both law and human rights enforcement,” Constitutional Court chief justice Mahfud M.D. said Thursday.

He explained that nations needed to discuss each country’s past experiences with electoral systems and constitutional practices, then to find future plans to facilitate development.

Twenty-five countries are expected to participate at the conference, including Indonesia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, Kazakhstan, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Korea, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Thailand, Timor Leste and Uzbekistan. The conference will also invite non-Asian countries: Austria, Germany, Turkey, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Egypt and Morocco.

“At the conference, we will discuss elections issues and shortcomings of electoral courts in each country,” Mahfud said.

Mahfud said in terms of settling election disputes, Indonesia’s experience was considered exemplary by other countries.

“The Indonesian Constitutional Court has resolved 640 electoral disputes in the 2009 presidential and regional elections peacefully,” he said. Of these cases, the court delivered rulings in 70 cases that consequently changed the election results, Mahfud said.

He claimed that a peaceful settlement of electoral disputes through courts was rare in other countries.

Mahfud explained that Indonesia’s elections proved that laws could be drafted to settle any disagreement. He said he believed the Constitutional Court contributed to the country’s democracy.

However, Mahfud admitted there were still incidents of electoral violations, such as vote buying, unfair nomination processes and nepotism.

Eight Asian countries at the conference will also establish the Association of Asian Constitutional Courts and Equivalents Institutions by signing the Jakarta Declaration, Court secretary-general Janedjri M. Gaffar said.

The eight countries are the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, South Korea, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, as well as host Indonesia.

The objectives of the association are to protect human rights, promote democracy and supervise the implementation of the law, as well as overseeing the independence of constitutional courts and other similar judicial institutions.

“I hope the formation of the association can improve our role,” Mahfud said. (ipa)