JAKARTA, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—The Constitutional Court (MK) received a petition on the 2020 regional head election (pilkada) results dispute filed by South Kalimantan governor ticket No. 2 Denny Indrayana-Difriadi online on Tuesday, December 22, 2020. They expressed objection to the South Kalimantan General Elections Commission’s (KPU) certificate No. 134/PL.02.6-Kpt/63/Prov/XII/2020 on the recapitulation of the 2020 South Kalimantan gubernatorial election on December 18 that declared Ticket No. 1 Sahbirin Noor-Muhidin winner of the election. Ticket No. 2 received 843,695 votes, while Ticket No. 1 received 851,822 votes—the margin was 8,127 votes.

The petitioner alleged that in the election there had been violations of the electoral principles referred to in Article 22E paragraph (1) of the 1945 Constitution—direct, public, free, confidential, honest, and fair. Had the election followed those principles, Ticket No. 1 should have been disqualified. The petitioner alleged that in several regions such as Binuang Sub-district, Tapun Regency, Hatungun Sub-district, Banjar Regency, Barito Kuala Regency there had been violations, threat, and intimidation. They also alleged that votes for Ticket No. 1 in South Banjarmasin Sub-district had been inflated.

Denny stated in the petition that there had been structured, systematic, and massive (TSM) violations during campaign, on voting day, and after voting day. He also alleged that state apparatuses had been mobilized to skew the election and central and regional budget had been misappropriated, including budget for social assistance funds of basic foodstuffs.

Denny also alleged that government activities and programs had been used to do covert campaign, including the use of incumbent governor Sahbirin Noor’s slogan “Bergerak” [“Berjuang Gelorakan Rakyat” or Fighting for the People] in his campaign.

“The slogan “Bergerak” had been campaigned for years by the South Kalimantan Provincial Government. It means that Ticket No. 1 had been campaigning for a long time using government facilities and budget. Although money politics was said to have declined, it persists, for example through a payment package for the regent/mayor candidates. Some regions weren’t free to vote. In those regions, our poll watchers were threatened not to [observe the election] and votes for us [barely existed],” the petitioner alleged in the petition registered in petition filing certificate (APPP) as No. 127/PAN.MK/AP3/12/2020.

Until Wednesday morning, December 23, 2020, the Court has received 131 petitions of the 2020 pilkada dispute—75 lodged online via simpel.mkri.id, 56 lodged in person. 114 petitions were filed by regency tickets, 14 by mayoral tickets, and 3 by gubernatorial tickets. The progress of the 2020 pilkada election dispute can be viewed on the Court’s website.

Writer: Siti Rosmalina Nurhayati/Nano Tresna Arfana
Editor: Lulu Anjarsari
Translator: Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Translation uploaded on 12/23/2020 21:11 WIB

Disclaimer: The original version of the news is in Indonesian. In case of any differences between the English and the Indonesian version, the Indonesian version will prevail.