Opening the pages in the year 2009, the Constitutional Court (the Court) held a trial on Dispute over Election Result in Subulussalam City, NAD Province on Monday (05/01), in the Court s Panel Room.
 
In the initial trial scheduled for initial verification, the Petitioner, Candidate Pair No. 5 in the election, H. Asmauddin, SE and Drs. Salmaza, claimed to have been deceited by the Petitionee, Independent Election Commission (IEC) of Subulussalam City. The Petitioner considered the election process as having legal defects due to numerous violent behaviours and deceits done systematically which directly affected the total legal votes attained by the Petitioner.
 
In the Decree of the IEC No. 35/2008 issued on December 23, 2008, the Petitioner as Candidate Pair No. 5 attained 14.729 votes, while Candidate Pair No. 1, Merah Sakti, S.H. and Alfan Alfian, S.E. crowned as winner in the second round election got 14.922 votes.
 
Yet, according to the Petitioner, the number of votes was due to the manipulation done by the Petitionee. The Petitionee was claimed to have done violations in the process of the election with the facts found by the Petitionee that there had been a mark-up in the total number of voters at the Vote Centers, a bloating of voters data in vote centers also a deduction of legal votes based on DA1-KWK form.
 
The Petitioner argued that the violations done by their opponents was closely related to the role of Candidate Pair No. 1 regarding that Merah Sakti in his capacity as Head of Commission A, held the authority to elect the Head of IEC in Subulussalam as well as its members. Therefore, in the Petitioner s point of view, “There has been a conflict of interest in the Petitionee as reflected in the Decree issued,” said Jurnal, the Petitioner s Legal Counsel.
 
Based on those arguments, the Petitioner demanded the Court to annul the Petitionee s Decree and to announce the Petitioner as Elected Candidate Pair in the second round of Subulussalam Election. Besides that, the Petitioner also demanded the Court to call for a re-election in Subulussalam City and re-counting in Runding and Lonkib Districts.
 
In the trial, the Petitioner had also prepared and submitted their modified Petition before getting any advices from the Justice Board. Responding to that, the Petitionee requesting three days to prepare their exception on the claims.
 
The Board of Constitutional Justices lead by Maruarar Siahaan rejected the request considering the nature of such trials as speedy trials. Therefore, The Petitioner demanded to prepare and submitted their exception in the next trial scheduled on Tuesday (06/01) to hear the Petitionee s exception and hearing to Witnesses of Each Party. (Yogi Djatnika)
 
Photo: Doc. of CCRI PR /Yogi Dj

Translated by Yogi Djatnika / CCRI