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The Petitioner’s attorney Bambang Widjojanto at the preliminary hearing of Central Kalimantan Province election results dispute, Wednesday (27/1/2021). Photo by Humas MK/Ifa.

JAKARTA, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—The Constitutional Court (MK) justices in Panel 1 held the preliminary hearing of the 2020 regional head election (pilkada) results dispute cases No. 125/PHP.GUB-XIX/2021 for Central Kalimantan Province, No. 14/PHP.BUP-XIX/2021 for East Kotawaringin Regency, and No. 12/PHP.BUP-XIX/2021 for Sekadau Regency on Wednesday noon, January 27, 2021.

The case No. 125/PHP.GUB-XIX/2021 was filed by Central Kalimantan Province election Candidate Pair No. 1 Ben Ibrahim S. Bahat-Ujang Iskandar. Through their attorney, Bambang Widjoyanto, they requested that the Central Kalimantan Provincial General Elections Commission (KPU) Decree No. 075/PL.02.6-Kpt/62/Prov/XII/2020 on the certification of the 2020 Central Kalimantan governor election vote counting recapitulation dated December 18, 2020 be annulled.

The Central Kalimantan Provincial KPU’s vote count results stated that the Petitioner placed second with 502,800 after Candidate Pair No. 2 Sugianto Sabran–Edy Pratowo (Relevant Party) with 536,128. Their margin was 33,328 votes. Bambang alleged that this margin was caused by fundamental violations both in the entire pilkada process and in the vote counting. The Petitioner also claimed that the Respondent had neglected their duties and responsibilities as election organizers.

“[The violations are] for example, a strong indication of manipulation and mobilization of DPTb, overlooking of replacement of officials six months before candidates were determined until the end of the tenure. The fraudulence includes abuse of authority, bureaucracy, and government programs, as well as money politics involving the campaign team through bribes in the form of sarong or sembako [staple food items], and misuse of government facilities such as the Central Kalimantan Province bansos [social assistance], misuse of Bank Kalteng’s CSR program and funding, and the exploitation of company donations and company workers. All these fundamental fraudulence has a significant influence in the vote acquisition,” Bambang explained.

He added that the violations in the election covered the vast territory of fourteen regencies/cities throughout the province. The Petitioner, he said, also alleged that Bawaslu could have been partial in the election, as it rejected almost all reports submitted to it before following the existing procedure.

The Petitioner requested that the Court review the DPTb (additional final voters list) and relocated voters list (DPPh) by opening the ballot boxes at the polling stations (TPS) that showed anomalous number of additional voters. In their petitum, they also requested that the Court disqualify Candidate Pair No. 2 Sugianto Sabran–Edy Pratowo (incumbents) and order the Central Kalimantan KPU to hold a revote throughout the province or in Seruyan, Kapuas, Pulang Pisau, and East Kotawaringin.

Data Discrepancy

The Panel I, chaired by Chief Justice Anwar Usman, also reviewed the case No. 14/PHP.BUP-XIX/2021 on the 2020 election of East Kotawaringin Regency, filed by Candidate Pair No. 4 Muhammad Rudini Darwan Ali-Samsudin. Their attorney, Fahri Bachmid, requested that the Court nullify the East Kotawaringin Regency KPU Decree No. Komisi Pemilihan Umum Kabupaten Kotawaringin Timur Nomor 213 on the certification of the 2020 East Kotawaringin Regency election vote counting recapitulation dated December 15, 2020.

The Petitioner alleged that their votes had been reduced massively. Fahri said the Petitioner received 47,161 votes, but a manual count by their team discovered that 5,000 votes had been eliminated. They were supposed to have acquired 52,161 votes.

Fahri alleged that this was because the polling station working committee (KPPS) didn’t follow procedure, leading to data discrepancy, which resulted in the reduction of the Petitioner’s votes and/or inflation of the other candidate pairs’. In addition, many voters who didn’t have the C6 form invite had voted using only resident ID (KTP) and were accidentally recorded in the attendance list by the officers. Therefore, there could have been 5,633 potentially invalid voters.

Therefore, in the petitum, the Petitioner requested that the Court order the East Kotawaringin KPU (Respondent) to hold a revote at all TPS in the regency including Pelangsian, Mentawa Bru Hilir, Sawahan, Mentawa Bru Hulu, Ketapang, Pasir Putih, and Eka Bahurui Villages.

Failure to Carry Out Procedure

At this hearing, the Court also heard the 2020 Sekadau regency election dispute case filed by Rupinus-Aloysius. Attorney Glorio Sanen argued that the KPU’s certification of the election vote counting recapitulation was inaccurate. The Petitioner alleged that the KPU had committed violations and failed to follow existing procedure in six or seven sub-districts: Belitang Hilir, Nanga Taman, Nanga Mahap, Sekadau Hulu, Sekadau Hilir, and Belitang Hulu, except for Belitang.

Sanen said there had been mistakes in the voting at 49 TPS in Nanga Taman, Nanga Mahap, Sekadau Hulu, Sekadau Hilir, and Belitang Hulu, while vote counting errors had occurred at 5 TPS in Sekadau Hulu Sub-district. “The final voters list in the sub-districts where the violations and procedural errors of voting and vote counting happened [affected] 34,584 votes—a significant number that could’ve affected the vote results,” he explained.

In addition, the Sekadau Regency KPU also failed to inform the notice return minute at its plenary meeting, which violated Article 13 of the KPU Regulation No. 8 of 2018 on the voting and vote counting of the governor-vice governor election.

Before concluding the hearing, Chief Justice Anwar informed that the hearing would resume on Wednesday, February 3, 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. 125/PHP.GUB-XIX/2021 and 14/PHP.BUP-XIX/2021, and at 11:00-13:00 WIB for case No. 12/PHP.BUP-XIX/2021.

Writer: Fuad Subhan/Utami Argawati
Editor: Lulu Anjarsari
Uploader: Fuad Subhan

Translator: Yuniar Widiastuti
Editor: R.A. Indah Apriyanti
Managing Editor: Budi Wijayanto

Translation uploaded on 01/27/2021 18:57 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.

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