“On the District information board, I noticed that Halo got 3,641 votes. But the result of the Kupang Election Commission Plenary Meeting mentioned Halo package only got 2,857 votes. So there was a difference as many as 784 votes,” said Linden O Sanam, an Election Watcher in Fatu Leo District, in his testimony in the third trial on Kupang Election Dispute, Monday (1/12), at the Panel Court Room.

The difference in the total votes was not the only things occurred in Kupang Election. At least, three other districts experienced the same things. In North Amfoang, the gap in the votes for Hallo between the recapitulation done by Disctrict Election Committee and the Regional Election Commission were up to 103 votes. Di North West Amfoang, the difference was 413. Meanwhile in Central Kupang, it was 342 votes different.

Related to the dispute, actually the Head of Hallo Success Team had submitted their objection in the Election Commission Plenary Session. He even demanded the Commission to re-count the physical evidences. ”However, at that time the Head of the Commission refused by saying that the Commission was not the place for evidence examination. Because of that, we are all here in the Court,“ explained Linden ending his testimony.

Apart from the dispute over the recapitulation result which reached more than 1000 votes, another peculiarity was also revealed. One of the Principal Petitioners, Herson Tanuab, stated that as a candidate in the election, he had been discriminated by the Election Commission in the process.

“For example in the campaign time scheduling, it had been agreed that the schedule for campaigning in a remote island within the Regency would be drawn. However, in a sudden and without a drawing, the campaign schedule for Hallo, AFI, Kasih, and Jernih pairs was not in a strategic time due to the transportation problem,“ revealed Herson.

Herson also revealed, this discriminative action might be supported by the fact that the Head of Kupang Election Commission indeed had a bloodline with a member of Tutor candidate pair. However, the Head of the Kupang Election Commission, Jhonny K. Tiran, denied this information. “Family relationship will not influence the Commission s independency. We had been sworn to keep our independency. We are going to discuss this accusation seriously in a meeting. “ emphasized Johnny. (Kencana Suluh Hikmah)
 
Photo: Doc. MK PR/Ardli N

Translated by Yogi Djatnika / MK