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The Constitutional Court (The Court) held the trial for Greater Kubu Election Dispute scheduled for Hearing to Information from Witnesses and the legalization of evidences, Monday (12/01), in the Court s Plenary Room.

The case No. 63/PHPU.D-VI/2008 was filed by Candidate for Regent and Vice No. 7, Sujiwo and Raja Sapta Oktohari through their Legal Counsel, Rezki, SH which claimed against the Decree of Greater Kubu Election Commission (the Commission) No. 38/BA/KPU/KKR/XII/2008 dated December 19, 2008 about the Announcement of Elected Candidate for Greater Kubu Regent and Vice 2009-2013 which was won by candidate pair No. 8, Muda Mahendrawan and Andreas Muhrotien.

In their petition, the Petitioner explained that the election held by the Petitionee was illegal and legally defect because the winning candidate pair had done various violations such as people not registered on the voters list but could still vote, intimidation to people for choosing certain candidate, and the voter’s cards only to people willing to choose candidate No. 8.

To support their claims, the Petitioner presented 12 witnesses. From all the information, most witnesses admitted that they did not get the C1-KWK form from the Election Holder Team saying that there had not been anymore copies. “I requested for one C1-KWK form but the Election Team did not give any, they said there were only one,” explained Agus Siswanto a witness in Vote Center 88 in Sungai Raya Village of Sungai Raya District.

Besides that, there were strange things in Vote Center 1 in Seruat 1 Village of Pakedai Bay District. As revealed by Dedi Kristian, there were 13 ballots marked by the Election Team. That happened because 13 voters could not come to the vote center due to their health condition. Because of that, the Election Team had the initiative to visit each voter s house. However, not more than 20 minutes later, members of the Election Team accompanied by the security had returned to Vote Center 1. “How come it was so fast, considering the distance between the voters houses and the vote center is about one kilometer,” explained Dedi.

In the trial, a member of the Justice Panel Board, Arsyad Sanusi, was made furious with the testimonial from a witness in Vote Center 3 of Sungai Kakap Village, Sungai Kakap District, Norman, which said that the vote result for the Petitioner was 164 votes while for candidate 8 was as many as 145 votes; but after the recapitulation in the Election Team level, the votes for the Petitioner was reduced to only 114 votes. When the information was confirmed by Arsyad how he knew about the deficit of the votes, Norman answered, “I know it from the lawyer, Your Honor.” 

Knowing that, Panel Justice Arsyad immediately said, “if you know it say you know it, if you don t  say you don t know. You are under oath, if you lie then you will be dealing with God Almighty!” cried Arsyad.

Information from Petitionee
Not wanting to be left behind, the Petitionee presented nine witnesses in order to counter all claims from the Petitioner. “All process in Greater Kubu Election has been running according to the existing regulation and law,” explained Ratmu, the Head of Election Team in Vote Center 28 of Kuala Dua Village, Sungai Raya District. That was supported by the signing of the transcript of proceeding and there were no protest from the witnesses.

To deny the information from the Petitioner s witnesses, Dedy Kristian; the Petitionee brought forth Hardiansyah as their witness. As the Head of the Election Team in Seruat 1 Village, Pakedai Bay District, he explained that it was not true that members of his team went to deliver the ballot for 20 minutes because they left at around 12 o clock and returned at around 1 o clock.

Before closing the trial, Head of Justice Panel Board, Akil Mochtar, told both the Petitioner and the Petitionee to submit their written response. “I want, by tomorrow, the written response from each party should have been handed in to the Registrar of the Court,”concluded Akil.

The next trial on Monday (19/01) at 10.00 WIB (GMT+07.00) would be for decision readout at the Court s Plenary Room. (Andhini Sayu Fauzia)

Photo: Doc. of CCRI PR/Wiwik BW

Translated by Yogi Djatnika / CCRI

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