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AH Wakil Kamal’s expression after listened to the interlocutory decision of South Halmahera election dispute, on Monday (22/2) in Plenary Room, the Constitutional Court Building. Photo PR/Ifa

 

 

 

The Constitutional Court again declares interlocutory decision (putusan sela) for South Halmahera election dispute, which ordering North Maluku election commission to conduct re-voting in 20 polling stations in Bacan district. Chief Justice Arief Hidayat declared the decision on Monday (22/2).

“Orders North Maluku election commission to conduct re-voting of South Halmahera regional election in 20 polling stations,” said Arief reading the decision accompanied by eight other Constitutional Justices in Plenary Room, the Constitutional Court Building.

The re-voting will be done in following polling stations; polling station 1, 2, and 3 in Amasing Kota, polling station 1 & 2 North Amasing Kota, polling station in Awanggoa, polling station 1 in Belang-Belang, polling station 1 in Hidayat, polling station 1 in Indomut, polling station 1 in Kaputusang, polling station 1 and 4 in Labuha, polling station 1 & 2 in Maborose, polling station 1 in Suma Tinggi, polling station 1 in Sumae, and polling station 1, 2, 3 & 4 in Tomori.  

The Court also ordered the General Election Commission (KPU Pusat) and the Election Monitoring Body (Bawaslu Pusat) to conduct supervision on re-voting in coordination with North Maluku election monitoring body and North Maluku election commission. The Court also insisted the Respondent to report re-voting process not later than three days after re-voting conducted.

Constitutional Justice I Dewa Gede Palguna explained the basis of interlocutory decision in legal consideration. The Court assessed the recalculation process was not ideally conducted. As known, the recalculation was only conducted in 28 polling stations from total 28 polling stations that ordered in previous interlocutory decision because the ballot from 20 polling stations was lost.

“Although 26 ballot boxes from Bacan district election monitoring committee is already found in Labuha special school’s toilet in Tomori village, according to the Related Party’s testimony, however the validity of the documents inside the boxes cannot be assured. South Halmahera district commands police (Polres) who found the boxes cannot be asked for confirmation because they are not present in the session and don’t give any written information,” said Palguna.  

Regarding recalculation in eight polling stations, the Court assessed it still valid. The recalculation will be added to the result of re-voting in 20 polling stations as a whole result.

In previous preliminary session, the Applicant argued their vote was reduced and ‘transferred’ to candidate pair Amin Ahmad-Lamusu. Representing by Applicant’s Attorney AH Wakil Kamal, the Applicant claimed they supposed to get 43,144 votes. They argued that violations were occurred in Bacan district, resulted in vote reduction. They further assessed the winning candidate pair’s votes were increased up to 2,214 votes.

The Applicant said they had reported such violations to North Maluku election monitoring body. The monitoring body then issued recommendation for comparing the South Halmahera election commission’s recapitulation with witnesses’ recapitulation record. However, there were no further follow up until the Applicant filed lawsuit to the Constitutional Court. The Applicant then requested the Court to decide the election result as calculated by the Applicant.

In second session, North Maluku election commission explained that entire South Halmahera election commission members, including the commissioner, had been deactivated under the election monitoring body’s recommendation. The recommendation also ordered North Maluku election commission to review recapitulation result of Bacan district which already determined by South Halmahera election commission.

Responding Applicant’s lawsuit, the Court issued first interlocutory decision on Friday (22/1) which ordering recalculation in 28 polling stations in Bacan district. However, only eight polling stations that recalculated due to the ballots of other 20 polling stations were lost. (Arif Satriantoro/lul/Prasetyo Adi N)

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