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The attorney for the Petitioner of the Bandung Regency Election Disputes No. 46/PHP.Bup-XIX/2021, Melisa Anggraini, left the courtroom after explaining the petition, 26/01/2021.

JAKARTA, PUBLIC RELATIONS OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT - The preliminary hearing of the 2020 Regent Election Results Dispute (PHP Kada 2020) for Bandung, Pangandaran, and Tasikmalaya were held by the Constitutional Court (MK) on Tuesday (26/1/2021) evening. The petition for Bandung election case No. 46/PHP.BUP-XIX/2021 filed by Candidate Pair (Paslon) No. 1 Kurnia Agustina dan Usman Sayogi JB. Second. Meanwhile, the petition for Pangandaran No. 15/PHP.BUP-XIX/2021 filed by Candidate Pair No. 2 Adang Hadari dan Supratman, and the case for Tasikmalaya No. 51/PHP.BUP-XIX/2021 filed by Candidate Pair No. 4 Iwan Saputra and Iip Miptahul Paoz.

Kurnia Agustina-Usman Sayogi JB through their attorney, Mellisa Angraini, said that the Petitioner asked for annulment of Bandung General Elections Commission (KPU) Decree No. 258/PL/02.6-Kpt/3204/Kab/XII/2020 concerning the certification of final vote count recapitulation on 2020 regent election.

"Based on the certification of vote count recapitulation by KPU (Respondent), the Petitioner was in the second place with the acquisition of 511,413 votes and the difference with Candidate Pair No. 3 was 417,189 votes,” said Melissa to the panel of justice led by Deputy Chief Justice Aswanto, accompanied by Constitutional Justices Suhartoyo and Daniel Yusmic P. Foekh.

According to the Petitioner, the vote count recapitulation could qualify as a legally flawed due to the omission of money politics which was a structured, systematic and massive (TSM) violation that has not been resolved by The Elections Supervisory Agent (Bawaslu). the Petitioner said that Candidate Pair No. 3, during the campaign, delivered political promises including cash rewards to the public and voters in Bandung Regency. It conveyed and distributed in the form of billboards and other campaign props. In addition, they also use religious tools and woman groups of Koran recitation  to carry out covert money politics with the promise of a minimum incentive of IDR 100,000,000 per year in the form of Koran teacher cards.

Therefore, the Petitioner asked for re-vote without including Candidate Pair No. 3 whom from the start should have been disqualified as a candidate pair.

Hereinafter, the panel held the 2020 regent election dispute of Pangandaran filed by Dadang Hadari and Supratman. The petitioner demand the court to annul KPU Decree No. 325/PL/02.6-Kpt/3218/Kab/XII/2020 concerning the certification of vote count recapitulation.

"The implementation of the 2020 Pangandaran Regent Election has been marked by the number of violations and/or negligence committed by the Respondent as the organizer which significantly affected the certification of the elected candidate Jeje Wiradinata. Furthermore, the fact that the ballot boxes were not locked and opened at the Polling Committee  Secretariat (PPS) have shown that there were serious violations that could affect the election results yet it should not be justified since they were not comply with the prevailing laws and regulations," explained Mohamad Yusup, the Petitioner's attorney.

In addition, the Petitioner stated that additional ballots were distributed and used illegally, as it is against the Law of 2020 Regent Election. Candidate Pair No. 1 Jeje Wiradinata and Ujang Endin (Related Party) clearly involved the power structure starting from officials and/or civil servants from the district, sub-district, village, until neighborhood and community (RT/RW) levels. In practice, they also used money or goods sourced from the Related Party personal funds,  their campaign team, or public funds for their campaign where the related party as the incumbent (Pangandaran Regent) utilized government activity programs in the form of social assistances and grants, sourced from the state expenditure budget (APBN) and regional expenditure budget (APBD).

Regent Election Disputes of Tasikmalaya

At the same session, the panel also held the preliminary hearing of the 2020 Tasikmala Regent Election Results Dispute filed by Iwan Saputra dan Iip Miptahul Paoz. The petitioner demand the court to annul KPU Decree No. 1181/PL/02.6-Kpt/3206/Kab/XII/2020 concerning the certification of vote count recapitulation. The Petitioners' attorney, Gio Febi revealed that the difference in the vote acquisition between the Petitioner and the candidate pair who won the most votes was 0.5% of the total valid votes. His party submitted a petition to MK because the implementation of the Tasikmalaya regional elections was marked by a structured, systematic, and massive violations (TSM).

"The implementation of 2020 Tasikmala Regent Election has occurred TSM violations by candidate pair No. 2 who is also the incumbent Regent," said Gio.

Allegedly happened the use of the regional expenditure budget (APBD) for the victory of Candidate Pair Number. 2 Ade Sugianto and Cecap Nurul Yakin which can be seen from the the budget increased since 2019, allegedly to finance government programs such as operational costs for RT Siaga, operational costs for the Covid 19 Sub-district Task Force in Tasikmalaya, and other aids.

"With the issuance of various policies and programs supported by APBD, at first glance, it is an ordinary regional government program. However, the facts that occurred were carried out to win candidate pair No. 2 through his position as incumbent regent. Therefore, the Petitioner asked the Court to disqualify candidate pair No.2 as a participant in the 2020 Regional Election 2020," said Gio.

Writer: Fuad Subhan/Nano Tresna Arfana
Editor: Nur R.
Uploader: Nur Budiman
Translator: SO (Editor: R.A. Indah Apriyanti)
Managing Editor: BW

Translation uploaded on 01/27/2021 at 16.25 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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