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The acrimonious dispute between two of the country’s most criticized institutions landed in the Constitutional Court on Thursday.

The battle between the Election Supervisory Board (Bawaslu) and the General Elections Commission (KPU) is threatening to derail 244 provincial, district and municipal elections scheduled for this year alone.

Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi — who along with Vice President Boediono has been unable to break the impasse — has asked the court to speed up deliberations, with a verdict expected next week.

Bawaslu is seeking a review of the 2007 law on election organizers, specifically the elements concerning the formation of Honorary Councils that have the power to discipline members of the KPU, who have long been criticized as inept, and the selection of members of the regional Election Supervisory Committees (Panwas).

By law, the KPU selects Panwas members, who supervise polls in their respective regions. But Bawaslu has been seeking to retain the Panwas members selected to monitor last year’s problematic polls.

KPU member Syamsul Bahri told the court that Bawaslu — traditionally criticized as lacking any real power — was unprofessional and had repeatedly ignored advice and agreements between the two bodies.

“Bawaslu was facing difficulties in selecting Panwas members and we sought advice from the Supreme Court. But Bawaslu rejected that advice,” Syamsul said.

To ensure the elections proceeded on schedule, the KPU and Bawaslu had agreed on the method of electing Panwas members, he said. “However, three days later Bawaslu inaugurated new Panwas members without coordinating with the KPU, which violates the agreement,” Syamsul said. “Even when the Vice Presidential Office and the Ministry of Home Affairs tried to mediate, Bawaslu never changed their decision.”

Syamsul also denied that the KPU’s integrity had been compromised and thus rejected Bawaslu’s recommendation to form an Honorary Council.

Hadar Gumay, chairman of the Center for Electoral Reform (Cetro), said the existing mechanisms to establish an Honorary Council presented a possible conflict of interest because a majority of its members, three of five, were chosen by the KPU itself.

“As a supervisory body, Bawaslu needs to be at the same level as the KPU,” Hadar said. “Ineffective supervision can lead to an election with no integrity.”

Saldi Isra, an expert in constitutional law from Andalas University in Padang, West Sumatra, said the law on the formulation of the supervisory bodies could be unconstitutional.

“Both the KPU and Bawaslu have to be independent, both the people and the financial resources, and a good supervisory board should at least involve two institutions in its selection process,” he said.

He said the KPU could be represented on the body, but not as the majority.