The Constitutional Court conducted a trial on Dispute over State Bodies Authorities filed by Electoral Independence Commission (KIP) of Southeast Aceh Regency as Petitioner I and House of Representatives for Southeast Aceh Regency as Petitioner II against KIP of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam (NAD) Province as Petitionee I, Governor of NAD Province as Petitionee II and The President of RI cq. Minister of Home Affairs RI as Petitionee III, on Monday (28/1) at 10.00 AM, in the Plenary Room 2nd floor of The Constitutional Court with the agenda of Hearing Witnesses from the Petitioners’ side, Petitionee I and II, also the Related Parties.

On the trial, the Petitioners presented M. Yusri Rangkuti [Chief of Panwaslih (Voters Observers Committee) for Southeast Aceh] and Usman [Chief of Municipality Electoral Committee (PPK) for Laweh Alas Southeast Aceh] as the witnesses, whereas the witness from the Petitionee I was Rahmat Fadhil, SP. Meanwhile the witness presented by Petitionee II was Amat Irwansyah (Chief of PPK for Babul Makmur) and Saidi Amran (Chief of PPK for Babul Rahmah).

At the beginning of the trial, M. Yusri Rangkuti described that there were several critical points from the Voters Observers Committee for Southeast Aceh on the basis of observation and direct visualization that KIP of Southeast Aceh as the organizer of the regional election had managed to run the election according to the existing regulations. Secondly, there were facts that KIP of Souetheast Aceh in assessing its duties had received pressures from various parties to finish the election on time. “Here, it is true that KIP of Southeast Aceh has issued State’s Decree No. 494 Year 2006 dated December 25, 2006  and not Decree No. 488 on Re-election Discourse. So, what should be highlighted is that KIP of Southeast Aceh did not conduct the re-election as many parties said,” explained Yusri.

Meanwhile, the Cief of PPK for Laweh Alas also added that he was given some money as much as 1 million rupiahs from KIP of NAD Province in order to assist in making the ballots recapitulation.
Responding to the information given by the witness from the Petitioners’ side, Amat Irwansyah said that basically the regional election in Southeast Aceh Regency did not have any problems until the D-day, December 11, 2006. “On that date after the election box had reached the Municipality, the Municipal of Babul Makmur with a member of Regency House of Representatives came to visit me in order to change the recapitulation result or to blow up the number of the real votes for candidate 1 for the Regent and Vice Regent of Southeast Aceh,” explained Amat.

Agreeing to what Amat said, Saidi Amran stated that the ballots calculation in Babul Rahmah Municipality had run honest and fair. Nevertheless, on December 12, 2006, after having the plenary meeting for voting recapitulation result from each municipality attended by all witnesses from each candidate, members of Voters Observers Committee of the Municipality, ans several people’s figures; a member of KIP for Southeast Aceh, Dedi Mulyana, asked Saidi to hold a “secret meeting”. “Why did I say that, because I did not understand the meaning of the meeting which is aimed to blow up the result of the voting,” explained Saidi.

After hearing the information from all witnesses, Constitution Justice, I Dewa Gede Palguna gave an appropriate response to the statement form the experts of the Petitionee’s side Denny Indrayana, S.H., LL.M., Ph.D., that the case filed by the Petitioners even though it was made in the form of Dispute Case, at the bottom line it was about dispute over the result of the regional election in Southeast Aceh Regency which should be settled in Supreme Court and not in the Constitutional Court.
Before closing the trial, the Chief of Constitution Justice Board, H. M. Laica Marzuki, stated that the next trial was the Stipulation Reading. (Andhini Sayu Fauzia/Yogi Djatnika)