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Tuesday, February 23, 2021 | 14:26 WIB

Constitutional Justices Enny Nurbaningsih and Anwar Usman verifying C-Result-KWK forms at the third hearing of the Kotabaru Regency election results dispute, Tuesday (23/2/2021) 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 third hearing of the 2020 Kotabaru Regency regent election dispute case No. 43/PHP.BUP-XIX/2021 on Tuesday, February 23, 2021 in the plenary courtroom. The hybrid online-offline hearing had been scheduled to present the Petitioner’s, Respondent’s, and Relevant Party’s witnesses and experts as well as to verify evidence.

Candidate Pair No. 2 Burhanudin-Bahrudin (Petitioner) presented several witnesses. Edy Supian Noor, a coordinator at the regency level, began his testimony by revealing that he had refused to sign the North Pulau Laut Subdistrict’s vote counting recapitulation because he’d encountered anomalies. For example, his witness found a C-KWK form copy that was different from the physical form issued by the General Elections Commission (KPU).

“Among the differences is that on the form there were 4 candidate pairs, when the Kotabaru Regency election was only between 2 candidate pairs. The names of some of the candidate pairs were written, but not the rest,” he said before Chief Justice Anwar Usman and Constitutional Justices Enny Nurbaningsih and Wahiduddin Adams.

Edy added that in the regency plenary meeting, he’d asked the regency’s KPU (Respondent) to show the physical forms, witnessed by Bawaslu (Elections Supervisory Body) and PPK (subdistrict election committee). He then asked for a revote, which the Respondent and Bawaslu refused because they claimed there were no issue. He believed the Respondent claimed that it was allowed as long as the candidate pairs’ vote acquisition wasn’t changed. This was supported by the regency’s Bawaslu.

“We also questioned an incident in Hampang Subdistrict where the vote counting had been done on a white board, not in the C-result-KWK form. It was then reported to the KPU, who said it was allowed as long as the candidate pairs’ vote acquisition wasn’t changed, when in fact it violated the rules that the KPU had set,” he explained virtually.

Constitutional Justice Enny Nurbaningsih then asked the litigants to verify the allegedly faked C-result-KWK forms. Zainal Abidin on behalf of the Respondent said that the evidence presented by the Petitioner was the C copy forms distributed when the vote and vote counting at the polling stations (TPS) have been completed, while the C result form was uploaded on the regency KPU’s website. “What we uploaded was the C-recapitulation-result. The C copy form was distributed after voting and vote counting. It was not downloaded,” he said.

Also read: Central Kalimantan, East Kotawaringin, Sekadau Election Results Challenged

Journalist Muhammad Yani, another witness for the Petitioner, testified that some donation had been distributed symbolically to people affected by fire to attract voters to choose Candidate Pair No. 1 Sayed Jafar-Andi Rudi Latif (Relevant Party). “After receiving the donation, they voted for Candidate Pair No. 1 because they stood out. At the market 85 [voted for Candidate Pair No. 1] but not at the same TPS,” he explained.

Meanwhile, the Candidate Pair No. 1 Sayed Jafar-Andi Rudi Latif (Relevant Party) presented three witnesses to refute all of the Petitioner’s arguments. Sukmaraga countered that the Petitioner had committed the manipulation. He admitted the issue at TPS 3 of Muara Ori Village where the votes were counted on a whiteboard. He said the KPPS (polling station working committee) and the witnesses for both candidate pairs had agreed on removing the tabulation to the C plenary result form, which wouldn’t change the results, and on signing it together. He said the results didn’t show any discrepancy.

At the preliminary hearing, the Petitioner raised an objection to the KPU’s certified vote counting results. They believe that Candidate Pair No. 1 Sayed Jafar-Andi Rudi Latif (SJA-Arul) had earned their 74,117 votes in unlawful manners. The Petitioner’s votes were behind the Relevant Party at 73,808.

The Petitioner alleged that the Relevant Party had committed structured, systematic, and massive (TSM) manipulation and violations in the regency’s election, such as politicizing the bureaucracy and abusing their authority by signing a joint statement between their campaign team and the Presidium of New Autonomous Region of Tanah Kambatang Lima. In addition, they alleged the Kotabaru KPU had inflated 555 votes in seven sub-districts.

In addition, they deemed the Kotabaru Regency election as novel in how the two candidate pairs competed politically. Candidate Pair No. 1 as incumbent, with political backing of all parties that have seats in the Regional Legislative Council (DPRD), was up against individual pair Candidate Pair No. 2 (Petitioner). Candidate Pair No. 2 was funded by the local community in collecting ID cards, campaigning for the election, and providing security [guards] for the witnesses.

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

Translator: Yuniar Widiastuti
Editor: R.A. Indah Apriyanti
Managing Editor: Budi Wijayanto

Translation uploaded on 02/23/2021 17:25 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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