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Wednesday, February 24, 2021 | 19:32 WIB

The Petitioner’s witness Sukma Sanjaya (center, black peci cap) testifying at the virtual evidentiary hearing of the 2020 West Pesisir Regency election results dispute, Wednesday (24/2/2021) in the Constitutional Court. Photo by Humas MK/Ilham.

JAKARTA, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—An evidentiary hearing of the 2020 West Pesisir regent election dispute case was held by the Constitutional Court (MK) on Wednesday afternoon, February 24, 2021. Candidate Pair No. 2 Aria Lukita Budiwan-Erlina (Petitioner of case No. 12/PHP.BUP-XIX/2021) presented several witnesses.

Sukma Sanjaya, a KPPS (polling station working committee) member at TPS 05 of Ulok Mukti Pekon [the name for “village” in West Pesisir Regency] in Ngambur Subdistrict, explained that there were 334 final voters (DPT) at the TPS (polling station) while it received 344 ballots. He said that he was appointed a KPPS member by the KPPS chair. In the appointment letter, the chair should’ve been Al Imron, but he didn’t know why the chair was changed. He also said that there was no voter attendance list at the TPS on the voting day, December 9, 2020.

“However, after the vote counting and the three witnesses for the candidate pairs and the KPPS members had signed the vote counting report, the attendance list was found,” he said in bewilderment.

On voting day, Sukma was tasked with checking everyone’s temperature following the COVID-19 protocols. He didn’t check the voters’ ID card or voting invitation card because there must’ve been another administrator who did. He said that Al Amin as the head of the hamlet said after voting that he’d previously distributed money to voters to vote for Candidate Pair No. 3 Agus Istiqlal-A. Zulqoini Syarif.

The next witness for the Petitioner, Fatahul Waton, a hamlet head from Lemong Pekon who was appointed by the village head, said that three days prior to voting, he was invited to the village head’s residence to distribute 22 envelopes to voters, each containing Rp100 thousand from Candidate Pair No. 3. “We were urged to vote for Candidate Pair No. 3. Apparatuses and contract workers who didn’t do so would face a dismissal and termination of bansos [social assistance] and raskin [rice subsidy] programs,” he explained to Deputy Chief Justice Aswanto and Constitutional Justices Suhartoyo and Daniel Yusmic P. Foekh.

The next witness was Paiwan Putra, who had voted at TPS 02 of Karya Penggawa Subdistrict. On December 8, 2020, he was summoned by a hamlet head, who gave him a volunteer appointment letter and Rp3 million to be distributed to the local community to urge them to vote for Candidate Pair No. 3. He was also given a list of the people to receive the money.

The Respondent’s and Relevant Party’s Witnesses’ Testimonies

Meanwhile, the West Pesisir Regency KPU (Respondent) also presented witnesses M. Mirhasan and Mardi Sahenda. Mirhasan. Mirhasan, the PPK (subdistrict election committee) chair of Bangkunat Subdistrict, explained that the election in the subdistrict ran smoothly, safely, and peacefully. There were no objections or issues during the election.

“There were no objections from the witnesses for all candidate pairs, and they signed the KPU’s certification of the 2020 West Pesisir Regency election recapitulation,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mardi, PPK chair of Ngambur Subdistrict, refuted the allegation of three additional voters from outside of Ulok Mukti Pekon that voted at TPS 04 of Ulok Mukti. There was evidence that the voters’ ID cards show that they are Ulok Mukti residents. The voters weren’t listed in the final voters list (DPT), but the were in the additional final voters list (DPTb).

Next, Candidate Pair No. 3 Agus Istiqlal-A. Zulqoini Syarif (Relevant Party) presented Windri, a witness who had worked as their liaison officer (LO). She was tasked with communicating with the election organizer officials, the security team, and the COVID-19 task force during the election. She explained that Candidate Pair No. 3 had volunteers in 188 pekons out of 11 subdistricts in the regency. However, these volunteers weren’t stationed at the TPS. The volunteers served to socialize Candidate Pair No. 3’s vision and mission, to put up banners during campaign, to clean up campaign attributes during election silence, etc.

Also read:

Money Politics in Central Lampung and West Pesisir Regency Elections

Central Lampung KPU: Nessy-Imam's Posita and Petitum Not Matching 

At the preliminary hearing, the Petitioner alleged that there had been phantom voters at TPS 05 of Kampung Baru Hamlet, Kota Jawa Pekon by the name of Devi Handayani. On voting day, she was in Bandar Lampung, not at the TPS, but her name and signature were recorded in the attendance list at the TPS.

In addition, they alleged that the pekon’s apparatuses had used the village fund to ensure the Relevant Party’s victory. The apparatuses also failed to remain neutral as they had intimidated and influenced voters to vote for Candidate Pair No. 3.  The Petitioner alleged that the Respondent and Relevant Party had committed structured, systematic, and massive (TSM) violations, intended to affect the candidate pairs’ votes, and tried to reduce the Petitioner’s votes.

Writer: Nano Tresna Arfana
Editor: Nur R.
Uploader: Nur Budiman

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

Translation uploaded on 02/25/2021 12:41 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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