2019-2024 Baubau Municipality Legislative Council (DPRD) candidate registering 2019 PHPU petition to the Constitutional Court. Photo by Humas MK/Dedy.

JAKARTA, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—Ratna, a 2019-2024 Baubau Municipality Legislative Council (DPRD) candidate registered a 2019 PHPU petition to the Constitutional Court on Thursday evening (23/5/2019).

The National Mandate Party (PAN) member challenged his 1,045 votes in the 2019 legislative election for Dapil (electoral district) II. Another PAN member La Ode Sahrun received 1,046 votes.

The one vote margin prevented Ratna from earning a 2019-2024 legislative seat. Attorney Ardin Firanata alleged that district election committee (PPK) of Wolio reduced Ratna’s votes at Wolio Sub-district, because her vote acquisition at the polling stations based on the C1 form does not match the tally at PPK Wolio.

“We must file a petition to the Constitutional Court because the margin between Ratna and La Ode Sahrun is very narrow, at only one vote. In the tally at the villages, sub-district, up to the confirmation at the Baubau Municipal General Elections Commission (KPU), we found an irregularity in the tally of C1 forms at the villages, sub-district, up to the Baubau KPU. This means that our legislative candidate’s votes got reduced, resulting in the one vote margin,” Ardin explained.

On Thursday evening (23/5/2019), the Court also received a petition from the Indonesian Justice and Unity Party (PKPI) for electoral districts of North Maluku and North Maluku District. PKPI’s attorney Junaidi explained that the subject of the petition is vote results discrepancies due to the mistakes in the C1 forms. “This is our focus. We believe that the Constitutional Court will consider the substantive justice of a petition,” Junaidi explained.

In addition, the Court received a legislative PHPU petition from the United Indonesia Party (Perindo) through attorney M. Raja Simanjuntak. “We filed a petition for Dapil II Humbang Hasundutan, North Sumatera. A contesting political party transferred votes from political parties that did not earn DPRD seats,” Raja said.

On this last day of 2019 legislative PHPU registration, the Court also received DPR-DPRD PHPU petitions from Riau Province, West Papua Province, West Java Province, Southeast Sulawesi Province, North Sumatera Province, etc. (Nano Tresna Arfana/LA/Yuniar Widiastuti)