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Monday, March 1, 2021 | 17:39 WIB

Andalas University’s constitutional law expert Khairul Fahmi taking oath to testify for the Petitioner at the evidentiary hearing of the 2020 Indragiri Hulu Regency election results dispute, Monday (1/3/2021). Photo by Humas MK/Ifa.

JAKARTA, Public Relations—The evidentiary hearing of the 2020 Indragiri Hulu regent election dispute case No. 93/PHP.BUP-XIX/2021 was held by the Constitutional Court’s (MK) on Monday, March 1, 2021. The hearing had been scheduled to present the witnesses and experts as well as to verify evidence.

Candidate Pair No. 5 Rizal Zamzami-Yoghi Susilo (Petitioner) first presented Andalas University’s constitutional law expert Khairul Fahmi as an expert. Fahmi talked about abuse of power by an incumbent, which the Petitioner had alleged. He believes the legal politics as determined by the legislature leans toward limiting an incumbent’s power so that regional elections wouldn’t be manipulated. A measure that has been taken to prevent it is requiring candidates to resign from their office. He added that the Constitutional Court had annulled this requirement, citing discrimination and disregard of the right of regional heads to take office for 5 years.

“The Constitutional Court has actually laid out guidelines so that the limitation is not subjected to others but to the regional heads. This means that the limitation of right, which tends to be discriminatory, was not approved by the Court, but it was directed so that the politic law may limit and oversee the regional heads’ power, Fahmi said before the panel, which consisted of Chief Justice Anwar Usman (chair) and Constitutional Justices Enny Nurbaningsih and Wahiduddin Adams.

He added that, in that vein, Article 71 paragraph (3) of Law No. 10 of 2016 prohibits regional head candidates from misusing authority, programs, and activities that benefit or harm one of the candidates in their region or in another region. However, despite the prohibition, the practices persist.

“This shows that the norm has not been implemented effectively because many regional heads misuse authority, programs, and activities that benefit a candidate or themselves as a candidate, such as mobilizing state civil apparatuses and use them for campaigning, and facilitating a candidate’s win through campaign using public budgets and social assistance programs,” Fahmi said.

Also read: Suspicion of Violations in Belu and Indragiri Hulu Regency Elections

Ballots Damaged

The Petitioner also presented witness Robby Ardi, a data entry coordinator, who said that there was discrepancy in the data of ballot use. He discovered this from the recapitulation copy at the regency level. “The number of ballots received plus that of the additional ballots must be equal to the total damaged or invalid ballots. There was 117 difference of the number of unused and used ballots in 6 subdistricts at 27 [polling stations],” he explained.

The Indragiri Hulu General Elections Commission (KPU) as Respondent explained that the difference at 26 polling stations (TPS) in 6 subdistricts had only been discovered after regency-level recapitulation. It was an error made by the polling station working committee (KPPS) when inputting data. The KPPS didn’t record invalid ballots as ballots retuned for damage or mismarking, resulting in double records.

Also read: No Objections, Belu Regency KPU Deems Petition Not under Court's Authority

Mobilization of Regional Officials

Robby also testified that the Petitioner had reported over 20 people over a WhatsApp group of civil servants (PNS) and village heads whose goal was a certain candidate pair’s win. However, only 5 of them were declared suspects.

To reinforce their argument, the Petitioner also presented Pandan Wangi village head Priyo Haryanto, who then testified about the WhatsApp group BINWAS. The group was formed with the initial goal to gather information for the village administrations. Its members are the village heads as well as subdistrict heads and their secretaries throughout the regency. Its administrator was the acting head of the Community and Village Empowerment (PMD) Office Risdiantoro.

“It was too bad that in September 2020, the group’s function changed, in which some group members directed or supported one of the candidate pairs. Group members who supported a certain candidate pair—including village heads, subdistrict heads, the acting head of the PMD Office, the inspector, and the regional secretary—sent memes and stickers about Candidate Pair No. 2,” he revealed.

Priyo also testified that the head of Peranap Subdistrict once gathered 10 village heads to discuss direct cash assistance (BLT) and to instruct them to urge the beneficiaries to vote for one of the candidate pairs. As many as 103 people in Pandan Wangi Village received BLT from the provincial budget, while 56 received social cash assistance (BST) from the central government.

Misuse of Direct Cash Assistance (BLT)

The Petitioner also presented Santi, a Family Hope Program (PKH) beneficiary from Serai Wangi Village. She testified that a subdistrict staff had gathered 36 PKH beneficiaries and instructed them to vote for Candidate Pair No. 2 to continue receiving the aid. “They subdistrict staff also distributed stickers and said the command came from the regent,” she revealed.

Meanwhile, the regency’s General Elections Commission (KPU) as Respondent presented M. Khairul Anwar, a polling committee (PPS) member from Ringin Village, Batang Gangsal Subdistrict. He testified that the KPPS had torn 76 used ballots that had been recorded in the voting result plano board because they didn’t know how to handle the ballots. The regency’s Elections Supervisory Body (Bawaslu) had received a report from Muhamad Syafa’at, a member of the Petitioner’s campaign team, regarding the issue. The incident was recorded in a report, which was signed by the witnesses without any objections. Bawaslu then declared the incident an ethical and administrative violation, and forwarded it to the KPU, who said that it happened due to lack of socialization and funding for a technical assistance program.

At the preliminary hearing, the Petitioner alleged that ballots had been manipulated in the vote counting and recapitulation at the subdistrict level throughout Indragiri Hulu Regency, resulting in surplus ballos, and that there had been structured, systematic, and massive (TSM) violations.

Therefore, in their petitum they requested that the Court accept their objection and grant their petition in full, and annul the Indragiri Hulu Regency KPU Decree No. 712/PL.02.6-Kpt/1420/KPU-Kab/XII/2020 on the certification of the 2020 Indragiri Hulu regent election vote counting recapitulation, dated December 17, 2020. In addition, they requested that the Court order the Respondent to do a revote (PSU) at 7 subdistricts: Rengat, Pasir Penyu, Peranap, Seberida, Batang Cenaku, Batang Gansal, and Rakit Kulim following the fair and confidential election principles and according to democratic principles.

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

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

Translation uploaded on 3/2/2021 11:46 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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