Salahudin Pakaya as Respondent\'s legal counsel conveying the response to the petition for the case of Dispute Resolution of Gorontalo Mayor and Deputy Mayor Election, Tuesday (7/31) in the Panel III Courtroom of the Constitutional Court. Photo by Humas MK/Ganie.

The Constitutional Court (MK) held a follow-up hearing on the dispute resolution of Gorontalo Mayor and Deputy Mayor Election on Tuesday (31/7). In the hearing, the legal counsel of Respondent Gorontalo Municipality Elections Commission (KPU) Salahudin Pakaya stated that the petition was obscure or obscuur libel.

Salahudin stated that the petition did not fulfill Article 158 paragraph (1) letter a of Law No. 10/2016 because the votes margin between Candidate Pair Number 2 Marthen A.Taha-Ryan F. Kono as the Relevant Party and Candidate Pair Number 1 Adhan Dambea-Hardi Saleh Hemeto as Petitioners reaches 5.23 percent. "The dispute petition can be submitted if the votes margin is a maximum of 2 percent," he explained in the hearing led by Justice Arief Hidayat.

In addition, Salahudin explained that Adhan Dambea-Hardi Saleh Hemeto received 37,032 votes (36.05 percent), Marthen A. Taha-Ryan F Kono received 42,398 votes (41.48 percent), and Rum Pagau-Rusliyanto Monoarfa received 23,281 votes (22.67 percent). This shows that the Petitioners have no legal standing to file the petition. "We request that the results of the vote recapitulation by the Gorontalo Municipality KPU be declared valid," he said reading the petitum.

Meanwhile, the Gorontalo Municipality Voters Supervisory Committee (Panwaslih) stated that the Petitioners\' allegation about the State Civil Apparatus (ASN) transfer was groundless. Especially regarding goods service working groups (Pokja) formed by prospective incumbent Marthen A. Taha. "We on behalf of the Panwaslih maintain that the action was not a violation and use of ASN for political purposes because the transfer and formation of the working group are different," he said on Case No. 3/PHP.KOT-XVI/2018.

This was also confirmed by Dhilfa Wiyani as legal counsel of the Relevant Party, who said that the margin between the two candidate pairs was 5.23 percent or 5,366 votes. "The votes margin is more than two percent. So it is not in accordance with Article 158 paragraph (1) of Law Number 10 of 2016," she said.

In addition, Dhilfa also denied allegation of structured, systematic, and massive (TSM) fraud that she deemed unfounded. She added that Gorontalo Panwaslih had already decided on a report regarding alleged money politics and stated that the report was not proven. "We request that the Relevant Party remain the winner of Gorontalo Municipality Election," she said in the petitum.

In the same session, an election results dispute (PHP) hearing of Padang Panjang Mayor and Deputy Mayor was also held. Sudi Prayitno as legal counsel of Padang Panjang KPU stated that the Constitutional Court was not authorized to hear the petition filed by Candidate Pair Number 2 Hendri Arnis-Eko Furqani. The Respondent considered that the Petitioners did not explicitly explain the votes margin obtained by the appointment of elected candidates. "This case also does not fulfill Article 158 paragraph (1) of Law Number 10 of 2016 because the votes margin is far above two percent," he said. (ARS/LA/Yuniar Widiastuti)