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Witnesses presented by the Petitioners and Relevant Parties taking an oath in the 2019 DPR-DPRD Election Results Dispute (PHPU) hearing of South Sumatra Province on Tuesday (23/7) in the Panel Courtroom of the Constitutional Court. Photo by Humas MK/Ganie.

JAKARTA, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) and the United Development Party (PPP) presented a number of witnesses in the 2019 DPR-DPRD (House of Representatives-Regional Legislative Council) Election Results Dispute (PHPU) hearing of South Sumatra Province on Tuesday (23/07/2019) at 07.30 WIB. Panel 2 was presided over by Chief Justice Aswanto, with Constitutional Justices Saldi Isra and Manahan M. P. Sitompul.

Aria Laksana Herlambang as the PDIP witness explained that his position at the General Election Commission (KPU) of South Sumatra Province was to support election organizers in all regencies/cities in South Sumatra Province. Aria said that the vote recapitulation process in Musi Banyuasin Regency went smoothly and quickly. 

Furthermore, during the plenary vote recapitulation meeting at the provincial level, PDIP assumed that the results of the vote recapitulation in the regency had been revised. "We recapitulated C1, DAA, DA data. However, after the PDIP internal recapitulation was carried out at the provincial level, it turned out that there were differences in the vote results," Aria explained.

PDIP also presented witness Julius Alev Yadhie from the provincial PDIP Data Center. Julius explained the discrepancy between C1 and DAA1 data in 14 sub-districts in Musi Banyuasin Regency.

"In our opinion, there might be an error from our witness at the polling stations. Therefore, we are looking for comparative witnesses, whether [the C1] is the same as C1 from other parties," said Julius.

Another PDIP witness, Edi Gunawan, confirmed that PDIP’s votes were purged and the Golkar Party’s inflated in Lalan District, Musi Banyuasin Regency. Regarding this matter, there was no objection from PDIP in the Regency KPU, even though PDIP placed 4 witnesses in Musi Banyuasin Regency.

On the first day during the plenary vote recapitulation in Lalan District, Edi was forced out by the KPU and Bawaslu. "At that time I wanted to make revisions to the results of the recapitulation in PPK [Sub-district Election Committee]. However, the KPU said that the hearing was closed for Lalan District even though I did not hear the gavel struck, the hearing was already closed," said Edi.

During the hearing, PPP witnesses Heriansyah and Alimin were present. They both had monitored the vote count at seven polling stations in Tanjung Agung Barat Village, Lais Subdistrict, Musi Banyuasin Regency. They said there had been a quick count that benefited the Democratic Party. However, both of them claimed that they did not follow the calculation process until it was completed.

"We both followed the vote counting process in the seven polling stations. However, we did not follow it thoroughly, moving from one polling station to another. We monitored each polling station for about 10-15 minutes," Alimin said. (Nano Tresna Arfana/NRA)

Translated by: MJK/YW

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