The Petitioner’s attorney Sayuti Abu Bakar attending the ruling pronouncement of the 2019 DPD PHPU of East Aceh Regency, Thursday (8/8) in the Plenary Courtroom of the Constitutional Court. Photo by Humas/Teguh.

JAKARTA, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court— The Constitutional Court ordered a  recount in East Peurlak Sub-district, East Aceh Regency. The Petition No. 185-18-01/PHPU.DPR-DPRD/XVII/2019 submitted by The Nanggroe Aceh Party was read on Thursday (8/8/2019). The recount (PSU) was deemed necessary because there were various versions of the vote acquisition.

"[The Court] orders the General Elections Commission in casu the Independent Elections Commission of the Aceh Province to recount the ballot papers at the East Peureulak Sub-district for  Aceh DPR of Dapil Aceh 6,”  said Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court Anwar Usman before the other eight constitutional justices in the Plenary Courtroom of the Constitutional Court.

In the legal considerations read out by Constitutional Justice Enny Nurbaningsih, the Court explained the facts revealed in the hearing. Based on the DA1 form that Petitioners had, they received 975 votes. Meanwhile, the DA1 form of the Respondent and the Relevant Parties showed they received 775 votes. The DA1 form of Panwaslih showed 888 votes.

As a result, there was a debate during the vote recapitulation at the district level. Finally, the East Aceh KIP decided to open the ballot box to see the DA1-DPRA model form contained in the ballot box. When the ballot box was opened, the number of votes obtained by the Petitioner was 888 votes, but because the East Aceh KIP was not sure of that, they decided to vote to determine the Petitioner\'s vote, so 775 votes were determined in the DB1-DPRA Model form.

The petitioner had raised an objection during the recapitulation at the district and provincial levels. However, the Petitioner\'s objection was not responded and followed up by KIP. Therefore, the Petitioner reported the incident to the Aceh Panwaslih on May 7, 2019. Then on May 23, 2019 the Aceh Panwaslih passed a decision stating that the Reported Party was legally proven to have committed an administrative election violation at the East Aceh Regency.

Furthermore, Justice Enny revealed, due to the many versions of tally results in the DA1-DPRA Model form of East Peureulak Sub-district, both owned by the parties and the results of the re-examination of DA1-DPRA form of East Peureulak Sub-district conducted by East Aceh KIP, the Court could not decide on the accurate one.

As the Court could not determine the correct number of votes for the Petitioner, the Court ordered a revote. "In order to get a fair legal certainty regarding the results of the General Election of DPRA members of Dapil Aceh 6 in Aceh Province and to protect the constitutional rights of voters, the Court considers it necessary to recount the ballot papers in East Peureulak Sub-district,” Justice Enny explained. (Arif Satriantoro/NRA/RD)

Translated by: FS/YW