Tegal mayor candidate Dedy Yon Supriyono after the 2018 Tegal City election results dispute (PHP), Monday (17/9) in the Courtroom of the Constitutional Court. Photo by Humas MK/Ifa.

The petition filed by Candidate Pair 4 Habib Ali-Tanty Prasetyoningrum in the 2018 Tegal City election results dispute (PHP) was denied by the Constitutional Court.

"The verdict adjudicated, in the exception rejects the Petitioners’ and Relevant Party’s exceptions; denies the Petitioners’ petition for its entirety," said Chief Constitutional Justice Anwar Usman along with the other constitutional justices in the pronouncement of the Decision No. /PHP.KOT-XVI/2018 on Monday afternoon (17/9/2018).

The Petitioners argued there had been differences in votes at polling stations (TPS) based on the C1-KWK, which are indicators of fraud. According to them, there potentially was fraud in the C1-KWK form data input both at TPS 1 and 3 of Kejambon Village, TPS 15 of Mintaragen Village, TPS 37 and 19 of Panggung Village, TPS 24 of Slerok Village, TPS 24 of Pesurungan Lor Village, TPS 7 of Kalinyamat Kulon Village, TPS 7 of Cabawan Village, TPS 7 of Krandon Village, TPS 4 and 9 of Kaligangsa Village, TPS 12 of Randugunting Village, TPS 6 of Kraton Village, TPS 1 and 20 of Tegalsari Village, and TPS 4 of Muarareja Village.

In response, the Respondent said that the allegation was groundless because input errors on the C-KWK forms did not reduce the candidates’ vote results. The Relevant Party denied this allegation as the vote count at all TPS were agreed on and signed by the witnesses of all candidate pairs, including those of the Petitioners.

Data Input Errors 

Constitutional Justice Enny Nurbaningsih read out the Court’s opinion, which stated that there might have been data input errors of the C-KWK forms for TPS 7 of Cabawan Village, TPS 7 of Krandon Village, TPS 9 of Kaligangsa Village, TPS 12 of Randugunting Village, TPS 6 of Kraton Village, TPS 1 and 20 of Tegalsari Village, and TPS 4 of Muarareja Village. The errors would not affect the candidates’ vote results on the C1-KWK forms.

The Court was of the opinion that the vote acquisitions of the candidates were consistent with the vote results on the DAA-KWK forms at each village. The errors had also been corrected on the DAA-KWK forms. There was no evidence that affirmed the Petitioners’ allegation.  (Nano Tresna Arfana/LA)

Translated by: Yuniar Widiastuti