---

The Petitioner’s attorney Veri Junaidi (center) after the preliminary hearing of the West Sumatera Province regional head election results dispute, Tuesday (26/01/2021) in the Courtroom of the Constitutional Court. Photo by Humas MK/Ifa.

JAKARTA, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—The Constitutional Court (MK) held the preliminary hearing of the 2020 regional head election (pilkada) results dispute for West Sumatera Province at the Panel I Courtroom on Tuesday, January 26, 2021.

Candidate Pair No. 1 Mulyadi-Ali Mukhni, who filed the petition No. 129/PHP.GUB-XIX/2021, stated that the 2020 gubernatorial election (pilgub) of West Sumatera Province was not democratic nor was it based on the election principles of honesty and fairness (jurdil). Their attorney Veri Junaidi said that the election didn’t follow the principle of equality since the other candidate pairs and the election organizers had committed violations. He added that the Integrated Law Enforcement (Gakkumdu)—consisting of Bawaslu (Elections Supervisory Agency), the prosecution office, and the police—has unilaterally declared the Petitioner a suspect.

“Ahead of the voting, [the Petitioner] was declared a suspect, which according to logical reasoning must’ve aimed at ruining the Petitioner’s reputation. In the end, the investigation on the Petitioner was terminated on the ground of insufficient evidence. The declaration of suspect was very brief ahead of the voting and the election silence. The declaration of suspect was on December 4, 2020; the voting was on December 9; the investigation was terminated on December 11. The process clearly violated the principle of honest and fair election, as it exploited the law enforcement systematically and utilized the press massively,” Veri explained before panel chair Chief Justice Anwar Usman as well as Constitutional Justices Enny Nurbaningsih and Wahiduddin Adams.

No Sanctions

Veri believes the Petitioner shouldn’t have been subjected to electoral sanctions outside of campaign schedule when they carry out their campaign honestly and fairly. He alleged that the election was not fair due to the structured and systematic effort to declare the petitioner a suspect. There was also a massive effort to publicize the Petitioner’s suspect status through the media after an investigation was carried out two days after voting.

“The declaration of the Petitioner as a suspect was hasty and forced, as it was done five days before voting, and was publicized massively through the media. [It was] a perfect way of reducing the Petitioner’s electability by influencing voters during election silence. The declaration and publication could have been designed from the start,” he said.

Veri believes that although the investigation being terminated for lack of evidence, this was also a structured, systematic, and massive (TSM) effort to reduce the Petitioner’s electability so that voters would vote for another candidate pair.

Therefore, in their petitum, the Petitioner requested that the Court annul the decision of the West Sumatera General Elections Commission (KPU) on the certification of vote count recapitulation of the 2020 gubernatorial election of West Sumatera Province and order the Respondent to hold a revote throughout all polling stations (TPS).

Legally Defective

At the same hearing, Panel I also heard petition No. by 128/PHP.GUB-XIX/2021 Nasrul Abit-Indra Catri. Attorney Vino Oktavia stated that the 2020 gubernatorial election of West Sumatera Province was invalid because the voting up to the vote count recapitulation was legally defective. He also alleged that Candidate Pair No. 4 Mayeldi-Audy Joinaldy had committed a serious electoral violation in relation to individual campaign donation.

The Petitioner alleged that aside from violating the campaign donation limit, the other candidate pair had given false statement in the campaign finance report (LPPDK). Existing legislation stipulates that individual campaign donation that exceeds the limit should be reported to the KPU and submitted to the state treasury.

Lima Puluh City Election

Meanwhile, Darman Sahladi-Maskar M. DT Pobo, Candidate Pair No. 2 in the Lima Puluh City mayoral election in petition No. 109/PHP.BUP-XIX/2021 challenged the vote margin of 7,648 between them and the KPU-certified winner, Candidate Pair No. 3 Saffaruddin Dt. Bandaro Rajo-Riski Kurniawan N. They alleged that the margin was due to administrative and TSM violations, which had significantly reduced their votes. Their attorney, M. Nurhuda, alleged that these violations had been committed by the winning candidate pair, the Lima Puluh City KPU as the Respondent, and the Lima Puluh City Bawaslu.

The Petitioner also alleged that the election had been sullied by money politics since election silence until voting day. They found out about the announcement of Safaruddin-Rizki’s 100,000 winning votes movement (SAFARI) from social media. They also alleged that the Respondent had ignored the violations by the winning candidate, who had distributed 1,000 head scarves (jilbab) to Islamic women religious groups and to households. This occurred in several sub-districts such as Payakumbuh, Harau, Lareh Sago Halaban, Suliki, Guguak, Kapur IX, Mungka, and Bukit Barisan. In addition, they alleged that the city KPU had ignored the forgery of their rival’s diploma, which resulted in their rival becoming eligible for the election.

In their petition, the Petitioner requested that the Court grant their petition and annul the decision of the Lima Puluh City KPU No. 515/HK.03.1-Kpt/1307/KPU-Kab/XII/2020.

Before concluding the session, Chief Justice Anwar reminded that the hearing would resume on Monday, February 1, 2021 at 08:00-10:00 WIB to hear the Respondent’s response and the statements of the Relevant Party and Bawaslu for cases No. 129/PHP.GUB-XIX/2021 and 128/PHP.GUB-XIX/2021. Meanwhile, the hearing for case No. 109/PHP.BUP-XIX/2021 would resume on the same day at 11:00-13:00 WIB.

Writer: Utami Argawati/Siti Rosmalina Nurhayati
Editor: Lulu Anjarsari
Translator: Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Translation uploaded on 01/26/2021 15:34 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.

---