Irawaty Wardany, Jakarta – The regional elections in 2008 have been quite successful considering the low number of election disputes filed with the Constitutional Court, says the Court chief.

"During 2008 we received only 27 complaints on election disputes. Of the complaints, we examined only four cases," Court chief Moh. Mahfud MD told the press here Tuesday.

He said the 23 other cases were rejected because plaintiffs failed to provide evidence that fraud had taken place in their regional elections.

Mahfud said the low number of filed disputes showed that losing candidates in the regional elections have begun to accept their defeat.

"There are defeated candidates who tried to find loopholes in the process and reported it," he said. But most of them failed to present convincing evidence in court.

"Seeing the pattern of regional election disputes, we can say that the implementation of the elections was quite well organized, and the regional election commission have been quite successful conducting the elections," he said.

He also came into conclusion that Indonesian people were actually ready for the democratic system, "it is the political elites that still find it hard to accept their defeats."

Some plaintiffs came to the court with allegation that there had been money politics in the elections but most of these cases could not be proven because people probably had taken the money but did not vote for the candidate who gave it to them.

He predicted that there would be massive complaints filed with the court during the 2009 legislative and presidential elections.

"But remember, any indivual cannot file a complaint with the Constitutional Court. It is only a party than can file the objection on behalf of their members," he said.

Mahfud added the court anticipated a big jump in complaints during and after the upcoming elections, saying the court had coordinated with the National Election Commission (KPU) on how to handle these complaints quickly, and was going to use teleconferences to allow them talk directly with witnesses from across the country.