The Constitutional Court announced that the Petition from Basmin Mattayang and Buhari Kahar Muzakkar, candidate No. 1 in Luwu Regency Election was rejected entirely. That was announced in open trial for public in case 33/PHPU.D-VI/2008 chaired by the Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court, Moh. Mahfud MD, Wednesday (26/11), in the Court s Plenary Room.

The Basmin-Muzakkar single ticket felt lost to the decision of Luwu Election Commission No. 46/P.KWK-LW/XI/2008 dated 4th of November 2008 about the Announcement of Elected Candidate in Luwu Election 2008. The decision set Andi Muzakkar and Syukur Bijak (candidate No. 2) as elected candidate with 83,058 votes, meanwhile Basmin-Muzakkar got 57,977 votes.

According to Basmin-Muzakkar, the 32,354 illegal votes had to be reduced from the total votes for candidate No. 2 and as the result, the correct number of votes was only 50,704 votes; meanwhile the total number of votes was only 57,977.

In the open trial, The Court considered the margin of votes did not show the total number of votes for each candidate, despite the fact that it was true. The possibility of margin could also go to candidates apart from No. 2, including to the Petitioner.

According to the Court, the truth of the numbers mentioned by the Petitioners were doubted and supposedly there was indeed a 32,354 votes difference, the number consisted of the votes who were not in the Fixed Election List and votes whose names were on the list but considered illegal due to several reasons, such as broken ballots.

“Based on the legal facts above, the Court considered the Petition was legally unreasonable, and consequently the Petitioner s claims have to be rejected,” said Constitutional Justice Maruarar Siahaan while reading the consideration for decision. (Luthfi Widagdo Eddyono)

Photo: Doc. MK PR/Wiwik BW

Translated by Yogi Djatnika / MK