KPU’s legal team conveying the Respondent’s response in the 2019 DPR-DPD-DPRD PHPU hearing for East Java Province on Monday (15/7) in the Panel 1 Courtroom of the Constitutional Court. Photo by Humas MK/Ifa.
JAKARTA, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—The General Elections Commission (KPU) denied ballot stuffing for other candidates in the DPR election of the electoral districts (dapil) of East Java 1 and East Java 11. The KPU stated that the allegation of vote reduction of Bambang Haryo Soekarto (Petitioner) by 34,549 votes and Rahmat Muhajirin by 56,274 was not true. KPU’s attorney Absar Kartabrata revealed this in the second DPR-DPRD (House of Representatives-Regional Legislative Council) legislative election results dispute (PHPU) hearing for East Java Province on Monday (15/7/2019) in the Panel 1 Courtroom of the Constitutional Court.
In the hearing presided over by Chief Justice Anwar Usman, with Constitutional Justices Arief Hidayat and Enny Nurbaningsih, Absar said that upon comparison of the Petitioner’s votes in 3 sub-districts of Prambon, Candi, and Gedangan, his vote results were 608, 3,051, and 1.726 votes, respectively. “So, the Petitioner’s proposition was absurd. The Petitioner conveyed an assumption that is legally groundless,” Absar said of petition No. 157-02-14/PHPU.DPR-DPRD/XVII/2019.
In response to the proposition that the votes for candidate Rahmat Muhajirin in 3 sub-districts in Sidoarjo Regency that were deemed higher than those in Surabaya Municipality, Absar said that based on the DB forms, his votes were 75,245 while the Petitioner received 23,419 votes.
Petition Obscure
In response to the argument of the Gerindra Party about Dapil East Java 11, Golkar as one of the Relevant Parties, through Fetty A. stated that the Petitioner’s petition was vague because of an additional locus in the revised petition. Fetty added that the petition also does not detail the mistakes in the vote counting that the Respondent had done. “Adding another dapil in the [petition] revision is not justified. So, the Relevant Party believes that the petition cannot be accepted,” said Fetty.
Meanwhile, Purnomo representing the East Java Province Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) responded to M. Nizar’s report of vote buying by Rahmat Muhajirin in Dapil Sidoarjo Regency. He explained that Sidoarjo Bawaslu had summoned the M. Nizar to complete the report. However, until the deadline passed, he did not follow up. “So, the report could not be registered,” Purnomo explained.
Accurate Number
In the same hearing, the justices of Panel I also listened to the East Java KPU’s response to petition No. 139-09-14/PHPU.DPR-DPRD/XVII/2019 for Dapil Jember 3 filed by the Perindo Party. KPU’s attorney Sigit Nurhadi said that the petition was obscure as the Petitioner did not detail the vote results for their candidate according to them compared to those according to other parties.
“There was a request for a recount of the hologrammed C1 forms, but [they] did not mention the TPS [(polling stations)] in question. The Petitioner only requested the accurate vote results but did not state the accurate number,” said Sigit reading the exception.
Past Deadline
KPU’s attorney Arif Effendi delivered the Respondent’s response to petition No. 124-212-14/PHPU.DPR-DPRD/XVII/2019 filed by the National Mandate Party (PAN). First, for Dapil Bangkalan 5, the Respondent stated that the petition had passed the deadline of petition revision on May 31, 2019.
Second, Arif said that, in relation to the allegation of vote stuffing to the National Awakening Party (PKB) by the Respondent, the matter had been followed up on by Bangkalan KPU by opening the ballot boxes and comparing the C1 and DAA1 forms. “And it was done upon recommendation by Bawaslu. After comparison, correction has been made. Everything has been recorded in a minute and there has been correction at 5 TPS in question,” Arif elaborated.
Inputting Mistake
In relation to petition No. 183-04-14/PHPU-.DPR-DPRD/XVII/2019 by Golkar, Arif Effendi explained that the subject of the petition, which was filed by individual Agoeng Prasodjo, who questioned the vote results against Aan Ainur Rofik, was an internal issue of the party. In this case, the Petitioner did not receive recommendation from the party’s chairman as a requirement to file a petition to the Court. Despite this fact, the KPU felt the need to express the Petitioner’s objection.
In response to the allegation of vote inflation for Golkar in Sawahan dan Putat Jaya Sub-districts, the Surabaya Municipal KPU Chairman and his subordinates had had a meeting, Arif added, and had observed the C1 copies in both regions.
“Upon assessment, it was found that there had been inputting mistake and on May 22, 2019 Bawaslu had given a recommendation. A correction has been made. Sawahan PPK [(Sub-district Election Committee)] and Putat Jaya PPS [(polling committee)] was proven to have been violated the vote results recapitulation procedure, so they were ordered to make administrative corrections,” Arif explained.
Aside from listening to the Respondent’s response and the statements of the Relevant Party and Bawaslu for the four petitions, the Panel I justices also listened to the responses to petitions No. 14-01-14/PHPU.DPR-DPRD/XVII/2019 by the National Awakening Party (PKB), No. 37-13-14/PHPU.DPR-DPRD/XVII/2019 by the People’s Conscience Party (Hanura), No. 186-05-14/PHPU.DPR-DPRD/XVII/2019 by the National Democratic Party (Nasdem), No. 208-07-14/PHPU.DPR-DPRD/XVII/2019 from the Berkarya Party, No. 76-03-14/PHPU.DPR-DPRD/XVII/2019 by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), No. 22-14-14/PHPU.DPR-DPRD/XVII/2019 by the Democratic Party, and No. 108-10-14/PHPU.DPR-DPRD/XVII/2019 by the United Development Party (PPP).
Before concluding the hearing, Chief Justice Anwar announced that the schedule for the next hearing would be informed by the Court’s Registrar Office. All litigants are expected to wait for further notice. (Sri Pujianti/LA)
Translated by Yuniar Widiastuti
Monday, July 15, 2019 | 15:14 WIB 230