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The Petitioner’s expert Dian Puji Simatupang giving a statement in the 2019 DPR-DPRD PHPU hearing of DKI Jakarta, Monday (29/7) in the Panel I Courtroom of the Constitutional Court. Photo by Humas MK/Ifa.

JAKARTA, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—The Constitutional Court (MK) once again held a follow-up hearing of the 2019 DPR-DPRD (House of Representatives-Regional Legislative Council) election results dispute (PHPU) the Panel I Courtroom on Monday (29/7/2019). In this session, the panel of justices held a DPR-DPRD PHPU hearing of the Provinces of East Nusa Tenggara, DKI Jakarta, and West Sulawesi. In case No. 195-05-11/PHPU-DPR.DPRD/XVII/2019 submitted by the Nasdem Party, the Petitioner’s witness Adnan, who was the Kuala Lumpur Overseas Elections Committee (PPLN), conveyed his statement regarding the revote (PSU) conducted by Kuala Lumpur PPLN after a recommendation by the Indonesian Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu).

Initially, said Adnan, the first delivery of ballots was on April 29 and May 3-6, 2019. Due to technical constraints, the Kuala Lumpur PPLN sent more ballots by post on May 7-9 2019. “The [delivery time] were extended for 3 days. Therefore, the time for sending the ballots were extended that it impacted the delivery of ballots to voters," Adnan explained before the hearing chaired by Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court Anwar Usman, with Constitutional Justices Enny Nurbaningsih and Arief Hidayat.

Related to this, Adnan added, it was proposed that all political parties participating in the 2019 Election be gathered to be given information about the extended deadline and change of schedule for vote tally, which had originally been planned to be held on May 15, 2019, and was changed to May 16, 2019. However, on May 15, 2019 night, Bawaslu recommended not to count the ballots that arrived on the day of tally, namely May 16, 2019. This affected around 62 thousand ballots that had arrived but were not counted in the vote count recapitulation. "There were around 62,000 ballots that arrived on May 16, 2019. And the tally was only stopped on May 17, 2019. So all that was calculated from the revote results through the post," explained Adnan.

Related to this, Dedy Ramanta as another witness for the Petitioner added, as a result of this there were two types of DA1 form: one where 62 thousand ballots received through the revote were included and one where the 62 thousand ballots were excluded.

Legal Certainty

To strengthen the argument, the Petitioner presented Dian Puji Simatupang, a Financial Administrative Law expert, to give a statement that there are provisions for the deadline for receiving special ballots by post in the 2019 Elections that took place in Kuala Lumpur. According to him, the receipt of a document is not based on the time of receipt of the document, but on the date of the stamp or postmark.

"In administrative practice, the regulation of receipts through the postmark date is actually for legal certainty and if it has been determined it is expected that later it will not cause problems," said Dian.

Postmark

Bawaslu RI Chairman Abhan stated that the recommendation for revote by the Kuala Lumpur PPLN came after various problems including alleged independence of the election organizers. On that basis, Abhan added, he had received a letter from the KPU (Respondent) on May 13, 2019 that the revote would be carried out through postal service. In essence, the Respondent stated postal delivery deadline would be extended from May 6 to May 9, 2019 and the deadline for ballot papers intake from May 13 to May 15, 2019.

"There was no record of postage stamps and so on. In practice, the calculation was originally May 15 [changed] to May 16. Then on that basis, on May 16, 2019 a recapitulation was carried out and there were objections from political parties because what was counted was only the ballots with the May 15, 2019 deadline," Abhan explained related to the Jakarta Provincial DPRD PHPU case.

Complex Recapitulation

In the same session, Panel I also listened to information from case No. 174-04-11/PHPU-DPR.DPRD/XVII/2019 submitted by the Golkar Party in the DKI Jakarta Provincial DPRD PHPU. The Petitioner presented Bambang Eko Cahyo, who explained the discrepancies in the vote recapitulation conducted by the Respondent. According to him, the simultaneous elections vote counting process has potentials for a variety of errors, such as the determination of valid and invalid votes, and various other manual counting errors. Although the process was monitored by observers, Bambang explained, voting and vote counting problems always arise.

"Control issue of massive vote counting is actually not an easy matter. It takes endurance from various people that carry out activities in copying C1 form to DAA1 form, which starts from TPS [polling station], village, sub-district, and copying DA1 (form) to DA1 Plano (form). And all the complexity starts with the large number of political parties and candidates," said Bambang.

Bambang admitted that the recapitulation process at PPK basically had followed the steps in the recapitulation provisions, which includes a complicated copying process. This long process forces the recapitulation to be carried out in parallel for expediency. "This is what ultimately sacrifices the accuracy of the calculation. Not to mention the witnesses and Panwas during the counting process," said Bambang.

Damaged Ballot Papers

In the same session, Panel I also listened to information from case No. 100-19-19/PHPU-DPR.DPRD/XVII/2019 filed by the Crescent Star Party (PBB) in the DPR-DPRD PHPU of East Nusa Tenggara Province. The Petitioner presented M. Abdullah as the party’s mandate witness in North West Alor Sub-district. He revealed a data inputting error on different C1 and DA1 forms in several villages, including in Buaya Island Village.

Regarding this matter, representing the Respondent, Muhajir Usman said it was not true that there were changes and differences in C1 and DA1 forms, as presented by the Petitioner\'s witness. At TPS 05 Desa Buaya, for example, Muhajir explained, after carrying out a recommendation by the Panwas, he found a pile of damaged ballot papers. Based on this finding, the total number of valid votes at the polling station was 156 and there were 5 damaged ballot papers, not 4. "So at TPS 05 there was 1 ballot paper with the name and symbol of a political party marked, but this valid ballot was considered valid for the party and candidate. It was only supposed to be a vote for legislative candidate, then after we tested (the form), the C1 form was finally corrected. In the recount, PBB originally received 2 votes [then it was changed to] 1 vote," Muhajir said.

Number Error

Meanwhile, related to case Number 187-05-28//PHPU-DPR.DPRD/XVII/2019 submitted by Nasdem Party in the DPR-DPRD PHPU of West Sulawesi Province, West Sulawesi Bawaslu Chairperson Sulfan Sulo conveyed information related to the Petitioner\'s vote acquisition issue with PDIP in Dapil Pasangkayu 2. "After an examination by KPPS and other political party witnesses, the vote acquisition from 26 to 25 was a mistake in [recording] the number of party votes," Sulfan reported.

In addition to listening to the statements of witnesses and experts from the cases, Panel I also reviewed cases No. 39-13-19/PHPU-DPR.DPRD/XVII/2019 submitted by the Hanura Party and case No. 120-12-19/PHPU-DPR.DPRD/XVII/2019 submitted by the National Mandate Party (PAN) on the PHPU of East Nusa Tenggara Province DPRD. In addition, Panel I also examined case No. 82-03-28/PHPU-DPR.DPRD/XVII/2019 submitted by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP), case No. 177-04-28/PHPU-DPR.DPRD/XVII/2019 submitted by the Golkar Party, and case No. 38-13-28/PHPU-DPR.DPRD/XVII/2019 by the People\'s Conscience Party (Hanura) in the West Sulawesi Provincial DPRD PHPU case.

Before concluding the hearing, Justice Anwar Usman said that all litigants will be informed of the hearing schedule by the Court’s Registrar Office. (Sri Pujianti/LA)

Translated by: Yuniar Widiastuti

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