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Constitutional Court held an intial trial on the dispute over the result of East Java Provincial Election, Monday (17/11), at the Main Court Room. Case No. 41/PHPU.D-VI/2008 was pleaded by the losing Governor Candidate pair, Khofifah Indar Parawansa and Mudjiono (Kaji).

In the trial, the Petitioners Legal Counsels explained their objections on the result of East Java Election Commission (Petitionees) No. 30/2008 dated November 11, 2008 about the recapitulation result of East Java second round election. On the counting done by the Petitionees, candidate pair No.1 (Petitioners) got 7,669,721 votes, meanwhile candidate pair No. 5, Soekarwo and Saifullah Yusuf (Karsa) deserved 7,729,944 votes.

However, the Petitioners argued that the result from the Petitionees was wrong because the Petitioners found some legal facts in the field that there had been a miscalculation in 25 out of the total 28 Regencies/Municipalities in East Java. According to the Petitioners, They should have been announced as the winner with 7,595,199 votes, whereas the Karsa pair only got 7,573,680 votes.

Besides explaining about a difference in number of votes, the Petitioners argued that there had been violations when a ballot from Vote Election 6 of Pajagalan Subdistrict, Kota District, Sumenep Regency had been opened by the side road after the counting in the Voting Center. In their Petition, the Petitioners inserted a testimonial from the Head of Electoral Committee telling that was done to fix the structure of the transcript of proceeding. “In that Voting Center, the Petitioners reached 73 votes and Karsa pair got 160 votes, with two illegal votes. Of the total 599 voters, 233 voters used their rights and 374 people were absent,” said the Petitioners Legal Counsel, Moh. Ma ruf.

Other proof, continued the Petitioners, was found in Pakong District, Pamekasan Regency where the District Electoral Committee delivered the copy of their self-made recapitulation to Petitioners witnesses, instead of the Election Commission official form, containing data of vote counting in Subdistrict level, and not the recapitulation from each Voting Center. “In the final Provincial recapitulation, the Petitioners admitted that it was a creation, once again creation while that was clearly causing some loss to the Petitioners when they wanted to recheck the votes they got,” continued Ma ruf. 

Related to the difference in recapitulation and the violations, in their pleadings, the Petitioners demanded the Constitutional Court to do a recounting on the ballot from 25 regencies/municipalities in East Java. In their Petitum, the Petitioners demanded the Constitutional Court to annul the recapitulation set by the Petitioners and announced  the recapitulation made by the Petitioners also announced Kaji pair as the elected candidate for East Java Governor and Vice.

After the explanation from the Petitioners, Justice Panel Board ordered the Petitioners to modify their pleading. Head of Justice Panel Board, Maruarar Siahaan, demanded the Petitioners to arrange the difference in the number of votes in form of a matrix of Petitioners counting compared to the Petitionees recapitulation. Meanwhile, a Member of Justice Panel Board, Arsyad Sanusi, questioned both the Petitioners and Petitionees whether or not there had been a deal on political ethic in form of statement ready to accept all consequences by each candidate. “The Commitment had been stated by each candidate, but it turned out that there was a problem in the coming days,” revealed one of the Petitioners Legal Counsels, M. Andi Asrun.

Only, Arsyad also demanded the Petitioners to prepare differences approximately 21,000 votes as claimed by the Petitioners. “Please remember, the difference in the number should be significant. How to prove that, I leave it up to you (the Petitioners),” continued Maruarar.

To the Petitioners, the Board gave a time tolerance until before midnight to submit their improved Petition. Despite their attending the court, The Petitioees (East Java Election Commission) and Related Parties (Karsa pair) had not been heard by The Board of Justice. 

In the next trial, the Board requested the Election Watchers Committee to come before the court. “The trial will be continued on Wednesday, November 19 at 14:00 scheduled to hear information from the Petitionees and examine evidences,” announced Maruarar before closing the trial. (Wiwik Budi Wasito)

Photo: Dok. Humas MK/Andhini SF
Translated by Yogi Djatnika

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