The fight for Herson Tanuab, S.H. and Ir. Vivo Henu Ballo (Hallo candidate pair) to join the second round in Kupang Regency Election entered its first trial, Wednesday (26/11), in the Panel Court Room of the Constitutional Court. The candidate pair filed a suit on the result of the Kupang Regency Election Commission Plenary Meeting that announced Tutor candidate pair and Berita couple were authorized to join the second round of the election due to the failing of all candidate pairs to attain 30 percent of votes.

According to Hallo pair, there had been a miscalculation done by the Election Commission in the Plenary Session. In the meeting, Tutor pair was announced to reach 42,976 votes, Berita pair achieved 27,976 votes, whereas Pasangan Hallo got 27,556 votes. ”Actually, Hallo pair should have reached 29,248 legal votes. Therefore, the pairs participating in the second round should have been Tutor pair and Hallo pair,” mentioned Hallo’s Legal Counsel, Gabriel Suku Kotan.

After explaining the background, Hallo pair pleaded the Court to announce in the name of law that the Plenary Session for Vote Recapitulation in Kupang Election had been wrong; consequently the second round election process had to be suspended.

Unfortunately, there were still many mistakes found in the written claims the Petitioner registered in the Constitutional Court. For example, the Pleading was still addressed to Kupang High Court and it was still far from the Constitutional Court s standard format of Election Dispute Case file.

Because of that, the Constitutional Court Panel of Justice gave the Petitioner one day to modify their Petition. ”We will wait until tomorrow (27/11) at noon, and the trial is adjourned until 16:00 WIB tomorrow,” said the Head of Justice Panel Board Maruarar Siahaan before closing the trial. (Kencana Suluh Hikmah)

Photo: Doc. MK PR/Kencana SH

Translated by Yogi Djatnika / MK