A panel of Constitutional Court justices, consisting of Moh. Mahfud M.D. (panel chief), Muhammad Alim, and M. Arsyad Sanusi (member), on Wednesday (11/11) in Jakarta heard a petition to hold a mayoral re-election in Depok, West Java province, in the hearing held for the examination of electoral dispute petition in Depok Regency.
Jakarta, MKOnline - Depok’s mayoralty election, which was held on Saturday, Oct. 16 2010, left some of the contenders in dispute, as the three pairs of mayoral candidates who were defeated to duo Numahmudi Ismail-Idris Abdul Shomad filed a petition, calling on the Constitutional Court to order the Depok Election Commission, known as KPU Depok, to hold a re-election.
The trounced candidates were Gagah Sunu Sumantri-Derry Drajat, Badrul Kamal-Agus Supriyatno, and Yuyun Wirasaputra-Pradi Supriyatna. All filed the petition on Wednesday, Nov. 11, with case registration Numbers 99/PHPU.D-VIII/2010; 200/PHPU.D-VIII/2010; 201/PHPU.D-VIII/2010, respectively.
As for duo Badrul-Agus, according to their lawyer, Arteria Dahlan, they have no problem with the final results of the vote tabulations, yet Badrul and Agus object to the process by which such results were determined. “The process was marred with massive cheating—so structural and systematic, thus making our results turn out to be as such,” Arteria said.
Arteria speculated that the election fraud or violations had even begun before the voters headed to the ballot box on Oct. 16, as problems particularly linked to the established timeline to approve qualified nominees, for instance, seemed to have emerged even prior to the Election Day. “In reality, the schedule was ignored, with the nominees approval process going beyond the established timeframe,” he said, adding that the KPU Depok changed election rounds three times, deeming the constant schedule rearrangement non-substantive, deceptively inclined.
The KPU Depok, according to Arteria, has approved two pairs of candidates whom he deemed failing to meet the established requirements for candidacy. “Gagah-Derry nomination, for example, could not satisfy the requirements because they received support of less than 3 percent,” he argued. In order to support his argument, Arteria said that he would call witnesses from 63 sub-districts throughout Depok to testify in court that they never supported Gagah-Derry, both of whom are politically independent candidates.
Besides Gagah-Derry, the KPU Depok should not have approved Yuyun-Pradi pair due to problems related to the absence of endorsement from any political party, Arteria continued. “They were having problems looking for ‘a boat’ that they somehow forced the Peoples’ Conscience Party (Hanura) to endorse them at last minute,” Arteria said, adding that Hanura previously had given an endorsement to his clients.
Arteria also lamented the fact that there were problems related to data updates, something that also happened during the 2005 Depok mayoralty elections. “KPU Depok did not provide us with the electoral roll (DPT),” he said, adding that this problem was found in the 63 sub-districts and 11 districts of Depok. “[The extent of this problem] is massive,” Arteria continued.
In addition, Arteria also accused that Depok administration involved in providing support for Yuyun-Pradi, not to mention the alleged use of administration programs and facilities to smoothen Nurmahmudi-Idris’ victory. In the petition, Badrul and Agus requested that the Constitutional Court disqualify Nurmahmudi and Idris and hold re-election in Depok.
A panel of Constitutional Court justices, comprised of panel chief Moh. Mahfud M.D., M. Arsyad Sanusi, and Maria Farida Indrati, adjourned the hearing due to the official visit of Austrian Constitutional Court Vice President, Brigitte Bierlein. The hearing then resumed at 2 p.m. to examine the petitions filed by other defeated pairs of candidates, Yuyun-Pradi and Gagah-Derry. Their lawyers also believed that the electoral roll spread in the 11 districts of Depok was problematic. “The Depok KPU was not promoting enough the awareness about the elections to the local residents, many of whom failed to show up on the Election Day because they didn’t receive any notification or whatsoever,” Yuyun-Pradi’s lawyer said.
The lawyer claimed that Nurmahmudi-Idris also took the advantage of public servants and mass organizations to grease the wheels to their victory. This was indicated by the fact that Cimmangis district head conducted a data collection for Nurmahmudi-Idris, and the action by the head of Depok fire department making banners, ballyhoos, stickers bearing Nurmahmudi-Idris pictures, Yuyun-Pradi said. Yuyun-Pradi’s lawyer also pinpointed that, during the campaign silence period, Nurmahmudi-Idris used Depok administration’s facilities to provide donations for the local residents or their families who died.
The lawyer added that Nurmahmudi Ismail’s wife, Nur Azizah, should have resigned from her position as the chairwoman of Family Welfare Movement (PKK) in Depok, considering that her husband was running for Depok mayor. “In reality, she was active, conducting PKK-related activities in Depok,” said Yuyun-Pradi’s lawyer, who demanded the Constitutional Court to grant the petition at the hearing.
Yuyun-Pradi’s lawyer also requested the Court to revoke the decision made by KPU Depok that approved the appointment of candidates Nurmahmudi-Idris as Depok mayor and vice mayor for the 2010-2016 term. The lawyer also demanded the Court to disqualify Nurmahmudi-Idris and to order KPU Depok to hold a mayoral re-election in Depok without including the candidacy of Nurmahmudi-Idris.
Meanwhile, politically independent candidates Gagah-Derry argued that the election roll in Depok was problematic. Gagah-Derry’s lawyer, Dahlia, alleged that KPU Depok was cheating and failed to maintain its independency. “There were many regulations violated by KPU Depok, which serves as the institution tasked with organizing Depok mayoral elections,” Dahlia added.
Dahlia also argued that KPU Depok turned a blind eye to the fact that candidate pair Nurmahmudi-Idris failed to conduct their mayoral campaigns within the established period of time and schedule. “The campaign by Nurmahmudi-Idris in Pondok Jidan area, for instance, was supposed to be allocated for other candidates with campaign number 1,” Dahlia said. Besides organizing a systematic fraud, Nurmahmudi-Idris, according to Dahlia, have also involved in money politics, such as giving away household utensils, which she deemed illegal.
Also, similar to others, Dahlia also demanded that her clients’ petition be granted and asked the Constitutional Court to revoke the Depok administration’s decision Number No. 27/R/KPUD/BA/10/2010 that approved the appointment of candidate pair Nurmahmudi-Idris for Depok mayor and vice mayor. Her clients also requested the Court to order KPU Depok to hold another mayoral election in Depok without including Nurmahmudi-Idris. (Nur Rosihin Ana)
Thursday, November 11, 2010 | 14:53 WIB 171