Preliminary hearing of the 2018 simultaneous regional election dispute on Thursday (26/7) in the Panel I Courtroom of the Constitutional Court. Photo by Humas MK/Ifa.

The Constitutional Court (MK) held a 2018 simultaneous regional election dispute hearing of Baubau City for cases No. 19/PHP.KOT-XVI/2018 petitioned by Candidate Pair Number 1 Roslina Rahim-La Ode Yasin and No. 20/PHP.KOT-XVI/2018 petitioned by Candidate Pair Number 4 Yusran Fahim-Ahmad on Thursday (26/7)in the Panel I Courtroom of the Constitutional Court. The hearing was presided over by Chief Constitutional Justice Anwar Usman with Constitutional Justices I Dewa Gede Palguna and Wahiduddin Adams.

Attorney for case No. 19/PHP.KOT-XVI/2018 Muhammad Taufan Ahmad stated that based on the vote count by the Baubau City KPU, Candidate Pairs Number 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 Roslina Rahim-La Ode Yasin A.S. Tamrin-La Ode Ahmad Moniase (Relevant Party), Wa Ode Maasra Manarfa-Ikhsan Ismail, Yusran Fahim Ahman, and Ibrahim Marsela-Ilyas received 18,367; 23,573; 4,503; 19;959; and 9,371, respectively.

However, according to the Petitioner, Candidate Pairs Number 1 and 2 should have received 24,573 and 17,367, respectively. The Petitioner alleged violations by the Respondent, including the Baubau City Population and Civil Registry Office (Dukcapil) issuing 100 letters of recommendation in exchange for e-ID on July 26-27 without coordination with the Respondent. The action legally violated the Technical Guidelines of the KPU RI in letter No. 574 of 2018. As a result, the Petitioner did not know the distribution of those letters, which had not been posted on the information board in any of the Baubau City polling stations (TPS).

“The KPPS should have recorded the number of people having the letters and voters using e-ID in order to confirm the distribution. This was not done, meaning that the Dukcapil helped the winning candidate pair by inflating votes of almost 10,000,” Taufan said.

Double Voters

Petitioner of case No. 20/PHP.KOT-XVI/2018 through attorney Dadi alleged several violations including on June 27 at TPS 6 of Baubau City, Wolio Sub-district, Wangkanapi Village, where double voters were found and the ballots exceeding the number of voters. Double voters were also found at S 7, TPS 8, TPS 1, and TPS 9. “The Petitioner requests that the Court order the Respondent to conduct a revote at 18 polling stations in 9 villages and 3 sub-districts in Baubau City by 30 days after the Court decision on the a quo case,” Dadi stated. (Sri Pujianti/LA)

Translated by: Yuniar Widiastuti