PKS’s attorney Sidik Effendi delivering the subjects of the petition for the DPR-DPRD Legislative Election Results Dispute (PHPU) of Electoral District (Dapil) of Lampung Province on Wednesday (10/7) at the Panel Courtroom of the Constitutional Court. Photo by Humas MK/Ganie.

JAKARTA, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—Vote acquisition of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) decreased in TPS (polling station) 2 Margorejo Village, South Metro Sub-district of Lampung Province. This was due to the opening of ballot boxes by the Sub-district Election Committee (PPK).

"[Due to] the opening of the ballot boxes at TPS 2 in Margorejo Village, South Metro Sub-district during the plenary vote count, PKS’s witnesses expressed objection," said PKS’s attorney, Sidik Effendi, during the hearing of DPR-DPRD (House of Representatives-Regional Legislative Council) election results dispute (PHPU) of Lampung Province electoral district (dapil)on Wednesday (10/7/2019) at the Panel Courtroom on the fourth floor of the Constitutional Court. The preliminary examination of petition No. 06-08-09/PHPU.DPR-DPRD/XVII/2019 was carried out by the panel of justices led by Constitutional Justices Aswanto with two panel members, Justices Saldi Isra and Manahan M. P. Sitompul.

Sidik said that PKS witnesses objected because the C1 form belonging to PKS (Petitioner) and the C1 Plano and C1 forms belonging to the Elections Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu) had the same contents and there were no objection forms or special events recorded during the calculation process at the PPK level.

"PPK should have explained the procedure and/or match the discrepancy in the recapitulation of the vote acquisition with the Regency/Municipality C1-Plano-DPRD form, not by opening the ballot boxes and recounting the ballot papers," Sidik said.

According to PKS, opening the ballot box is a violation of the procedure. The ballot papers should only be kept by PPK. However, several witnesses of the contesting political parties also kept ballot papers. After those ballot papers were taken by the witnesses, they were punched out, which resulted in the addition to the National Awakening Party’s (PKB) votes by one vote. The vote inflation to PKB decreased PKS’s seats in the Lampung DPRD.

Meanwhile, the petition of the Berkarya Party questions fraud in the DPRD election in Pandeglang Electoral District (Dapil) 5. According to the attorney of the Berkarya Party, Martha Dinata, the fraud caused decreased vote acquisition of the Petitioner and increased votes for the National Mandate Party (PAN).

Meanwhile, the Hanura Party through attorney Dirzi Zaidan stated that there was a miscalculation in the Election of South Tangerang Municipality DPRD candidates. According to Dirzi, the miscalculation occurred in East Ciputat Sub-district, including Rempoa Village, Rengas Sub-district, and Cirendeu Sub-district.

"As a result of the miscalculation, the votes for the Hanura Party decreased and, on the other hand, the votes of the National Awakening Party increased," said Dirzi. (Nano Tresna Arfana/NRA)

Translated by: MJK/YW