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Regency KPU member Purnomosidi delivering a response at the second hearing of the Purworejo regent election results dispute, Tuesday (2/2/2021) in the Courtroom of the Constitutional Court. Photo by Humas MK/Ifa.

JAKARTA, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—The second hearing of the 2020 regional head election (pilkada) results dispute cases No. 29/PHP.BUP-XIX/2021 for Purworejo Regency and No. 20/PHP.BUP-XIX/2021 for Rembang Regency was heard by the Constitutional Court’s (MK) Panel I bench on Tuesday morning, February 2, 2021. The presiding justices—Chief Justice Anwar Usman as chair alongside Constitutional Justices Wahiduddin Adams and Enny Nurbaningsih—heard the Respondent’s response and the statements of Bawaslu (Elections Supervisory Body) and the Relevant Party.

The Rembang Regency General Elections Commission (KPU) as Respondent through Purnomosidi strongly denied the allegations of Petitioner No. 29/PHP.BUP-XIX/2021 Candidate Pair No. 2 Kuswanto-Kusnomo, who claimed there had been structured, systematic, and massive (TSM) violations, one of which was the fake signatures of polling station working committee (KPPS) members of Bener, Purworejo, Bayan, and Gebang Sub-districts.

“The petition was obscure in that the Petitioner couldn’t explain the alleged signature forgery, the chronology of the violation, and the details of the subjects whose signatures were forged, as well as the number of voters whose signatures were allegedly forged at 30 TPS [polling stations] and the loss of votes experienced by the Petitioner,” Purnomosidi said.

He added that the Petitioner alleged that there was discrepancy between the ballot data for 6,157 votes and the number of voters recorded in the attendance list. However, they couldn’t explain the allegation, making it baseless and inaccurate.

“It is not true that there were fake signatures at 21 TPS in Bener Subdistrict, 3 TPS in Purworejo Subdistrict, 4 TPS in Bayan Subdistrict, and 2 TPS in Gebang Subdistrict that significantly affected the vote margin between the Petitioner and Candidate Pair No. 3. The Petitioner’s witnesses didn’t raise objections against such forgery,” he explained.

Purnomosidi added the Petitioner’s petitums were contradictory. Point 4 requested a revote at 30 TPS, but points 3 and 6 requested that the vote results be declared as 149,005 votes with those of Candidate Pair No. 3 (Relevant Party) be reduced to 139,509.

In addition, the Respondent didn’t receive the copy of the Central Java Provincial Bawaslu’s decree on TSM administrative violations in the 2020 Purworejo regent election. “No report and finding of TSM administrative violations in the 2020 Purworejo regent election were investigated, examined, and reviewed by Purworejo Regency Bawaslu,” he revealed.

Next, Candidate Pair No. 1 Agus Bastian-Yuli Hastuti (Relevant Party) through Hermansyah Dulaimi similarly stated that the petition was vague as the Petitioner only presented a table of each candidate pair’s vote acquisition where their votes were 5,704 fewer than those of the Relevant Party without presenting their version. The vote margin was allegedly caused by TSM violations by the election organizers, but the actors weren’t mentioned specifically.

The Relevant Party also denied any abuse of authority that affected the votes. The Relevant Party had allegedly distributed hundred thousands of calendars at the total of Rp2.4 billion to the local community. Hermansyah said it was merely the Petitioner’s baseless assumption. “Therefore, the Relevant Party requested that the Court decide to grant the Relevant Party’s objection and declare the Petitioner’s petition rejected or inadmissible,” he added.

Meanwhile, Purworejo Regency Bawaslu through Nur Kholiq stated that based on its monitoring, Candidate Pairs No. 1 received 115,826 votes, No. 2 earned 141,405 votes, No. 3 earned 147,109 votes, with a total of 404,340 valid votes.

“In the plenary meetings, there was no witnesses’ objection to the vote acquisition. However, there were changes and corrections in most of the plenary meetings—at the subdistrict and regency levels—following the recommendations from relevant election observers in relation to voters data, which didn’t directly affect the votes,” Nur Kholiq explained.

Bawaslu stated that, based on monitoring on alleged TSM violations in the voting and vote counting process, there was no objections from the witnesses stationed by the Petitioner at 21 TPS in Bener Subdistrict, 3 TPS in Purworejo Subdistrict, 4 TPS in Bayan Subdistrict, and 2 TPS in Gebang Subdistrict in relation to fake signatures.

Candidate Pair No. 2 Kuswanto-Kusnomo filed the petition No. 29/PHP.BUP-XIX/2021. They alleged that there had been TSM violations in the regency’s election. Among them are the alleged forgery of signatures by polling station working committee (KPPS) members of Bener, Purworejo, Bayan, and Gebang Sub-districts as well as discrepancy between the attendance list, the number of signatures, and the number of votes.

Rembang Regency Election Dispute 

At the same hearing, Rembang Regency KPU (Respondent) through Muhamad Hasan Muaziz stated that the object of petition No. 20/PHP.BUP-XIX/2021 by election Candidate Pair No. 1 Harno-Bayu Andriyanto didn’t meet the formal requirements, so the pair didn’t have legal standing to file the petition. They also said the Petitioner’s allegations were obscure because the petitum was inconsistent. One of its point requested a revote at several TPS, but in another the Petitioner didn’t explain the number of vote loss at those TPS. Therefore, the Respondent denied the entire statements, arguments, allegations, and petitum by the Petitioner.

Similarly, Candidate Pair Abdul Hafidz-Mochamad Hanies Cholil Barro as the Relevant Party denied the entire arguments by the Petitioner. Through attorney Paskaria Tombi, they stressed that the arguments were confusing, unclear, and couldn’t be accounted for.

Meanwhile, Rembang Regency Bawaslu stated that based on their supervision, the Petitioner’s, the Respondent’s, and Bawaslu’s versions of the vote acquisition were the same: Candidate Pair No. 1 earned 208,736 votes while Candidate Pair No. 2 earned 214,237 votes.

In addition, on behalf of Bawaslu, M. Maftuhin said that supervision at TPS 5 in Karangmangu Village in Sarang Subdistrict showed that the ballots should have been 222, but only 221 were received and there were 105additional ballots to accommodate 75 relocated voters. The total number of ballots received was 326.

Also read: Alleged TSM and Administrative Violations in Purworejo, Solok, Rembang Regency Elections

Meanwhile, Rembang Regency election Candidate Pair No. 1 Harno-Bayu Andriyanto in case No. 20/PHP.BUP-XIX/2021 alleged that there had been administrative violations. They received 208,736 votes while candidate pair Abdul Hafidz-Mochamad Hanies Cholil Barro received 214,237 votes. They claimed to have found relocated voters who had voted without the A5 KWK form. In addition, they found unsealed ballot boxes at several polling stations—a violation of Article 10 paragraph (2) letter d of the KPU Regulation (PKPU) No. 19 of 2020.

The Petitioner had requested that Panwascam and Bawaslu of Rembang Regency control such administrative violations at ever stages of the election. However, they haven’t received any response. Therefore, in their petitum, they requested that the Court annul the Rembang Regency KPU Decree No. 200/PL.02.6-Kpt/KPU-Kab/XII/2020 and order a revote at 44 polling stations in Pamotan, Sarang, Sale, and Sedan Sub-districts. 

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

Translator: Yuniar Widiastuti
Editor: NL
Managing Editor: Budi Wijayanto

Translation uploaded on 02/02/2021 21:17 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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