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The Respondent’s attorney Halmahera and West Halmahera KPU Chair Miftahudin Yusuf at the second hearing of the regency’s election results dispute, Friday (5/2/2021) in the Courtroom of the Constitutional Court. Photo by Humas MK/Ifa.

JAKARTA, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—The Constitutional Court (MK) held the second hearing of the 2020 West Halmahera regency election (pilkada) results dispute on Friday morning, February 5, 2021. The agenda was to hear the responses by the Respondent and the Relevant Party for case No. 108/PHP.BUP-XIX/2021, which was filed by Candidate Pair No. 2 Dany Missy-Imran Lolory. Chief Justice Anwar Usman chaired the hearing alongside Constitutional Justices Wahiduddin Adams and Enny Nurbaningsih.

Also read: West, South, North Halmahera Regency Election Results Challenged

At the hearing, the West Halmahera Regency General Elections Commission (KPU) as the Respondent through Hendra Kasim conveyed their refutation of the Petitioner’s arguments. Hendra said it was not true and legally groundless that there had been structured, systematic, and massive (TSM) violations and manipulation by the election organizer at the polling stations (TPS) in seven subdistricts in the regency.

The Respondent also dismissed the alleged mobilization of “phantom” voters as a mere assumption. “Philosophically, additional voters or those not listed in the DPT [final voters list] but are eligible can use their right to vote by showing e-KTP [electronic resident ID card] or a letter of recommendation. This is a form of protection of the citizens’ constitutional rights,” Hendra explained. The Respondent believes such mobilization was nonexistent and that the additional voters’ choice in the election was confidential.

Hendra added that the Petitioner is an incumbent, who has direct relationship with the regency’s Population and Civil Registry Office (Dukcapil), who has the authority to record e-KTP. Thus, it is the Petitioner who actually could have mobilized voters who had e-KTP or letter of recommendation.

At the previous hearing, the Petitioner alleged that the high vote margin between the Petitioner and the Relevant Party was due to structured, systematic, and massive (TSM) violations and manipulation by the election organizers at polling stations (TPS) in seven sub-districts: West Halmahera, Jailolo, South Jailolo, Ibu, North Ibu, South Ibu, Sahu, and Loloda. In addition, the Relevant Party’s campaign team allegedly mobilized voters who were unlisted in the DPT while the regency’s KPU ignored those unlisted voters to vote at TPS whose voters were recorded in the additional final voters list (DPTb). 

Phantom voters were allegedly inputted in the DPTb, and the DPTb attendance list was replaced by a blank paper. This goes against the KPU regulation for not following the voting procedure, where the attendance list to use should be one the KPU prepares. The violations and manipulation were a way to use these phantom voters for the Relevant Party’s win.

Allegation of Violations Refuted

Meanwhile, Candidate Pair No. 1 James Uang–Djufri Muhammad (Relevant Party) through A. H. Wakil Kamal strongly refuted the Petitioner’s allegations. They believe the unlisted voters could use their right to vote by providing e-KTP or a letter of recommendation at the TPS up to one hour before the voting ended. They also stated that the Petitioner didn’t specify the alleged violation of the right to vote based on the DPTb.

Meanwhile, the West Halmahera Bawaslu (Elections Supervisory Body) admitted to receiving a report from the Petitioner and forwarding it to the North Maluku Province Bawaslu, who rejected it for having passed the deadline. The Petitioner objected the decision and appealed to the Bawaslu RI, who also rejected the report.

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

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

Translation uploaded on 02/05/2021 20:23 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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