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The Respondent’s attorney Yakob Abddul Rahmat Mahmud giving a statement at the second hearing of the Pahuwato Regency election results dispute hearing, Tuesday (2/2/2021). Photo by Humas MK/Teguh.

JAKARTA, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—The Panel III bench of the Constitutional Court (MK) held the second hearing of the 2020 regional head election (pilkada) results dispute cases No. 27/PHP.BUP-XIX/2021 for Pohuwato Regency and No. 105/PHP.BUP-XIX/2021 for Lamongan Regency on Tuesday, February 2, 2021. It was presided over by chair Constitutional Justice Arief Hidayat alongside Constitutional Justices Manahan M. P. Sitompul and Saldi Isra.

The attorney of the Pohuwato Regency General Elections Commission (KPU) as Respondent, Yakob Abddul Rahmat Mahmud, stated that the case filed by Candidate Pair No. 3 Iwan Sjafruddin Adam-Zunaidi Z. Hasan had missed the deadline. The Petitioner filed it to the Court on December 18, 2020, while the Respondent certified the vote recapitulation on December 15.

“When the results were out, the Respondent certified it on December 15, 2020 along with the documents and announcement, so the filing of petition on December 18, 2020 was past the deadline,” Yakob said.

He also responded to the Petitioner’s allegation of structured, systematic, and massive (TSM) violations by the Respondent. The Respondent believes the case had been forwarded to Bawaslu (Elections Supervisory Body) and the court.

Relevant Party Denies Allegation

M. Alyas Ismail, the attorney of Candidate Pair No. 4 Saipul Mbuinga-Suharsi Igirisa (Relevant Party), stated that the Petitioner’s allegation regarding politicization of bureaucracy, vote buying, and intimidation by the Relevant Party was not true.

The picture taken of the head of Marisa Village and wife with the Relevant Party wasn’t related to election campaign or any effort to influence the people. The Relevant Party also denied that the governor of Gorontalo’s social assistance events to Pohuwato Regency was part of an effort to sway public sentiment. “Because the program by the Gorontalo government have existed long before the campaign,” Alyas said. 

Distribution Procedure

At the same hearing, the bench also heard the statement from the Relevant Party of case No. 105/PHP.BUP-XIX/2021 for Lamongan Regency. Attorney Febri Diansyah countered the allegation made by Candidate Pair No. 1 Suhandoyo-Astiti Suwarni (Petitioner) that the distribution of ballots didn’t follow the existing legal procedure. Febri said any shortage and/or surplus of ballots was never questioned by witnesses at each polling stations (TPS) and didn’t influence the Petitioner’s votes.

He also responded to the Petitioner’s claim of correction by the polling station working committee (KPPS) at 150 TPS using correction pen. He said such a correction tool was justified and regulated in Article 19 paragraph (1) of the KPU Regulation (PKPU). “It is allowed and it didn’t change the vote acquisition of [the candidate pairs] but corrected minor errors, and it was witnessed by the parties,” he said.

Next, Febri responded the Petitioner’s claim of erroneous vote counting. The Relevant Party believes this is not ground for a recount or a revote. “Because the evidence shows that the Petitioner miscounted and misadded [the votes]. Technical mistakes only occurred at 8 TPS out of 23 TPS questioned and there was no objection from the witnesses of each candidate pair at the time,” he explained to the Court in person alongside fellow attorney Amir Burhannudin.

Past Deadline

Sri Sugeng Putjiatmiko, the attorney of the regency’s KPU, stressed that the Respondent believes the Petitioner’s petition was filed past the deadline, which was December 21, 2020 at 09:20 WIB. The petition was filed on December 21, 2020 at 19:08 WIB.

Lamongan Regency Bawaslu member Miftah Hulbadar stated that Bawaslu received a report regarding the discrepancy of the number of ballots received at 741 TPS in the regency. At 628 TPS, the number didn’t match with DPT (final voters list) + 2.5% DPTb (additional final voters list). “However, 3 TPS were not found, because the Petitioner mentioned villages that don’t exist in the subdistrict in question,” he said.

Miftah explained that based on Bawaslu’s inspection, the discrepancy was not a ground for a revote but was an indication of maladministration. “Because the process was over, we ordered the KPU to make adjustments and follow up on it with [a charge] of violation of code of ethics against the officers who managed the ballots,” he said.

Before concluding the hearing, Constitutional Justice Arief Hidayat said that both cases would be forwarded to the justice deliberation meeting (RPH) to be decided. Should the cases progress, the Registrar’s Office will notify the litigants of the number of witnesses and other things before the next hearing resumes. 

Writer: Sri Pujianti
Editor: Nur R.
Uploader: Rudi

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

Translation uploaded on 02/04/2021 11:33 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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