Hanura Party legislative candidate Agus Setyo Budi from electoral sub-districts of Jekulo and Dawe, Kudus District, filing a petition of the 2019 legislative PHPU on Thursday (23/5). Photo by Humas MK/Ganie.

JAKARTA, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—Approaching the last day of registration of the 2019 legislative election results dispute (PHPU) petitions, the Constitutional Court received a petition by Kudus District and Aceh Legislative Council (DPRD) by the name of Agus Setyo Budi and Kamarudin Abubakar, respectively, at the Ground Floor Hall of the Constitutional Court on Thursday (23/5/2019).

As Hanura Party legislative candidate from electoral sub-districts of Jekulo and Dawe, Kudus District, Agus Setyo Budi came to the Constitutional Court to register his petition. He claimed that there had been fraudulent acts by the election organizers in several polling stations (TPS) in those areas. The candidate, who received 3,901 votes, said that during the voting, a polling station official gave five ballots to all voters when, in fact, not all voters were listed in the areas in question. “What needs to be noted is that [district] DPRD covers small areas, not as vast as the province or national,” Agus revealed.

Ballot Stuffing

At the same time, Kamaruddin Abubakar, an Aceh DPRD candidate from the Aceh Party, represented by attorney Fadjri, said that he filed a petition to the Court because there had been ballot stuffing in several polling stations, resulting in a narrow margin between himself and the relevant party. “The vote margin between the Petitioner and the Relevant Party is quite narrow, at 11 votes. The Petitioner received 3,719 votes. The narrow margin must be [addressed] because there was ballot stuffing,” said Fadjri, who came without the principal petitioner.

Until Thursday at 12.00 WIB, 6 petitions have been registered. They are DPR-DPRD PHPU of West Kalimantan Province, North Sumatera, East Java, Central Java, and Aceh Province as well as DPD PHPU of North Maluku. (Sri Pujianti/LA/Yuniar Widiastuti)