Court backs KPU on legislative seat allocations

The Constitutional Court on Friday ruled the second phase of legislative vote counting by the General Election Commission (KPU) was valid, effectively annulling a contradictory Supreme Court ruling made in July, The Jakarta Post reported.

The Supreme Court verdict, which has been widely criticized, would have transferred 66 seats at the House of Representatives from smaller to larger parties, with a further 1,300 regional council seats changing hands as well.

The Constitutional Court stressed that its decision must be applied to the KPU vote counting method used in the 2009 legislative election.

Constitutional Court chairman Mahfud MD said that generally legal judgments are not retroactive.

“The debate about whether a ruling can be retroactive has nothing to do with this case. The most important thing is to protect constitutional rights,” he said.

The ruling was welcomed by the KPU and most political parties.