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Chief Justice Anwar Usman with Constitutional Justices Wahiduddin Adams and Enny Nurbaningsih at the preliminary hearing of Bengkulu Province election results dispute, Wednesday (27/1/2021). 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 Bengkulu Province, South Bengkulu Regency, and Kaur Regency (cases No. 78/PHP.GUB-XIX/2021, 45/PHP.BUP-XIX/2021, and 44/PHP.BUP-XIX/2021) on Wednesday morning, January 27, 2021.

In the case No. 78/PHP.GUB-XIX/2021, Bengkulu governor candidate pair Agusrin M. Najamudin-Imron Rosyadi challenged the province’s KPU decree No. 119/PL.02.6-Kpt/17/Prov/Xll/2020 on the certification of the 2020 Bengkulu Province election vote counting recapitulation. The KPU certified that the Petitioner received 271,603 while Candidate Pair No. 1 Rohidin Mersyah–Rosjonsyah (Relevant Party) received 418,409 votes. The Petitioner believe they should have received 333,316 votes while the Relevant Party received 318,080 votes.

The Petitioner argued that the loss of their votes was due to structured, systematic, and massive (TSM) mobilization of up to 100,000 voters by Candidate Pair No. 2, involving polling station working committee (KPPS) members in five regencies: Mukomuko, North Bengkulu, Seluma, South Bengkulu, and Kaur. In addition, they alleged that these KPPS members had been instructed by unknown individuals to damage ballots for Candidate Pair No. 3, resulting in invalid votes.

Efforts to Sabotage 

At the beginning of the candidates’ nomination, the Petitioner suspected that there had been a sabotage against them involving election organizers, because the Bengkulu Provincial KPU declared them ineligible (TMS) without solid arguments. Only after they reported it to the Bengkulu Province Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) were they able to contest in the election.

“This shows that since the beginning, election organizers have tried to sabotage [the Petitioner] by imposing subjective standards. Consequently, we lost a lot of time to campaign and prepare, and we lost public trust as the local community believe Bengkulu governor candidate Agusrin M. Nadjamudin and vice governor candidate Imron Rosyadi was incapable and ineligible to run for election,” said attorney Yasrizal before panel chair Chief Justice Anwar Usman alongside Constitutional Justices Enny Nurbaningsih and Wahiduddin Adams.

Yasrizal also alleged that the Relevant Party as incumbents had abused their office and authority as regional heads by exploiting the regional budget and COVID-19 funding for their campaign.

“An arrest discovered a watch with the logo of Public Works and Public Housing (PUPR) Office, which was supposed to be used for COVID-19 mitigation, was used as a gift by the Candidate Pair No. 2 on behalf of the governor,” he added.

He also said that there was a significant discrepancy between the number of voters in the governor and regent election in Lebong, Rejang Lebong, Kepahiang, Mukomuko, North Bengkulu, Seluma, South Bengkulu, and Kaur Regencies and that recorded in the attendance list.

“After the Bengkulu Provincial KPU’s plenary meeting, the KPU’s online vote counting still showed a large gap of voters between those the governor and regent elections. However, one or two days after the provincial plenary vote counting, the numbers changed. After the anomaly was discussed at the provincial plenary [meeting] and a written report was sent to Bawaslu, everything was returned to reflect the plenary [meeting],” he explained.

Therefore, in the petitum, the Petitioner requested that the Court annul the Bengkulu Provincial KPU Decree No. 712/PL.02.6-Kpt/1420/KPU-Kab/XII/2020 on the certification of the 2020 Bengkulu governor election vote counting recapitulation and order the KPU to do a revote in the five regencies in question.

Kaur Regency Election Organizers’ Neutrality Questioned 

At the same hearing, the Court heard the Kaur regency election dispute case No. 44/PHP.BUP-XIX/2021 filed by Gusril Fausi-Medi Yuliardi, who objected to the vote recapitulation by the Kaur Regency KPU (Respondent) in Decree No. 190/PL.02.6-Kpt/l 704/KPU-Kab/XII/2020 on the certification of the 2020 Kaur regent election vote counting recapitulation. The Petitioner alleged structured, systematic, and massive (TSM) violations by the election organizers at most polling stations (TPS) in the regency.

Attorney Misbahuddin said that the voter participation in the regency exceeded the national target of 88.59 percent. The Petitioner alleged that the election organizers at the polling station working committee (KPPS), sub-district election committee (PPK), and KPU levels had marked up the number of voters in a structured, systematic, and massive (TSM) manner.

He also expressed the Petitioner’s doubt about Kaur Regency Bawaslu in supervising the regional election because they didn’t respond to several reports by the Petitioner against Candidate Pair No. 2 Lismidianto–Herlian Muchrim (Relevant Party), while a report against the Petitioner was responded immediately, who was then declared to have committed a violation. Due to Bawaslu’s failure to be neutral, the Petitioner reported the Kaur Regency Bawaslu’s chair and members to the Election Organizer Ethics Council (DKPP) in Jakarta on November 11, 2020 in case No. 147-PKE-DKPP/XI/2020.

Therefore, in their petitum, the Petitioner requested that the Court annul the Kaur Regency KPU Decree No. 190/PL.02.6-Kpt/1704/KPU-Kab/XII/2020 on the certification of the 2020 Kaur regent election vote counting recapitulation, dated December 16, 2020 22.30 WIB.

Petition Withdrawn 

At the same preliminary hearing, Panel 1 also heard the South Bengkulu Regency election dispute case No. 45/PHP.BUP-XIX/2021. However, attorney Yasrizal said the Candidate Pair No. 2 Budiman–Helmi Paman had requested that the petition be withdrawn.

In the petition, which has been registered, the Petitioner requested that the Court annul the vote acquisition of Candidate Pair No. 3 Gusnan Mulyadi–Darmin and disqualify them from the 2020 election. The Petitioner alleged that the rival pair had committed structured, systematic, and massive (TSM) violations.

Before concluding the hearing, Chief Justice Anwar informed that the hearing would resume on Tuesday, February 2, 2021 at 11:00-13:00 WIB to hear the Respondent’s response and the statements of the Relevant Party and Bawaslu for cases No. 78/PHP.GUB-XIX/2021 and 44/PHP.BUP-XIX/2021. 

Writer: 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 18:55 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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