Wednesday, March 3, 2021 | 18:39 WIB
Witnesses, experts, and evidence presented at the evidentiary hearing of the 2020 South Konawe Regency election results dispute, Wednesday (3/3/2021). Photo by Humas MK/Agung.
JAKARTA, Public Relations—The Constitutional Court (MK) held an evidentiary hearing of the 2020 North Halmahera regent election dispute case No. 34/PHP.BUP-XIX/2021 on Panel I on Wednesday afternoon, March 3, 2021. The hearing, presided over by Chief Justice Anwar Usman (panel chair) alongside Constitutional Justices Enny Nurbaningsih and Wahiduddin Adams, had been scheduled to present the witnesses and experts as well as to verify evidence.
At the hearing, M. Bahasmi, a campaign team member of Candidate Pair No. 3 Muh. Endang-Wahyu Ade Pratama Irman (Petitioner) testified about the TPS (polling stations) that were closed early on voting day. He said voting at TPS 02 of Sangi-Sangi Village, Laonti Subdistrict had been closed at 12:45 WITA, citing completed voting process. After voting at that TPS, he heard from the police that TPS 1 of Cempedak Village had also been closed at 11:30 WITA.
Bahasmi also received a report from the witnesses that almost all TPS in Laonti Subdistrict had been closed before 13:00 WITA. He also stressed that the Petitioner’s witnesses in the subdistrict didn’t sign the subdistrict plenary report. In response, Hasni said on behalf of the South Konawe Regency Bawaslu (Elections Supervisory Body) that Bawaslu hadn’t been aware of it until the regency plenary meeting.
“After the South Konawe Regency Bawaslu investigated, 6 TPS—TPS 1 of Cempedak Village; TPS 1, TPS 2, and TPS 3 of Labuan Beropa; TPS 2 of Labotaone; TPS 1 of Tambeanga had started counting votes before 13:00 WITA under a mutual agreement and due to bad weather, and the ballot boxes were to be sent to the subdistrict,” Hasni said.
Meanwhile, the Respondent presented Laonti Subdistrict PPK (subdistrict election committee) member Imarudin, who refuted that vote counting had started early at all TPS in the subdistrict. He’d discovered only at 6 out of 31 TPS in 19 villages had the vote counting started early. Next, Laoke, the witness for Candidate Pair No. 2 Surunuddin Dangga-Rasyid (Relevant Party), who was also a mandate witness for the Relevant Party in the election, said that the witness who made the allegation couldn’t provide evidence, so the recapitulation had run until it finished.
Also read: Konawe Islands' Petition Withdrawn, Violations in Kotabaru and South Konawe Elections Questioned
BKPSDM Testifies
The Relevant Party also presented the head of the Personnel and Human Resources Development Agency (BKPSDM) Chadidjah, who testified that the local government had taken steps to maintain the neutrality of state civil apparatuses (ASN) in the 2020 simultaneous regional election. One of them was issuing the circular letter No. 275/1178/200/Sep/2020 signed by the regional secretary on behalf of the regent, regarding the neutrality of ASN and the use of state facilities in the South Konawe Regency election campaign.
Chadidjah also explained that the head of the Population and Civil Registry Office had been inaugurated on March 13, 2020. “Apart from that, no officials were transferred 6 months after and before the South Konawe Regency election,” she added.
The Relevant Party also presented Bulo Syarif, head of Laswi Village in Tinanggea Subdistrict, who talked about the meeting between the Indonesian Association of Village Administrations (APDESI) throughout the regency and the Deputy House (DPR) Speaker Rachmat Gobel about fertilizer scarcity on October 26, 2020. Bawaslu had sent a letter to warn against using the meeting for campaigning.
Also read: KPU Denies Petitions of South Konawe and Konawe Islands
Experts’ Statements
At the hearing, the litigants presented several experts. The Petitioner’s expert Khairul Fahmi said that the mechanism of the regional election hadn’t been managed effectively, especially legal measures against vote buying. He believed that the examination of witnesses by Gakkumdu (Integrated Law Enforcement) didn’t specify that witness had to testify under oath. Article 116 paragraph (1) of the Criminal Procedure Code (KUHAP) states that a witness shall be examined without administering an oath, except when there is enough reason to presume that they will not be able to attend the court examination.
“The step that should be taken is to keep taking witness testimony as evidence and forward it to the investigation, so there will be room for Gakkumdu to carry out searches and seizures so that there is an opportunity to open the case optimally,” he said, referring to the Criminal Procedure Code.
Fahmi said that “money politics” or vote buying in the regional election (pilkada) hadn’t been mitigated properly. He said the Bawaslu Regulation No. 9 of 2020 couldn’t effectively be applied to the South Konawe Regency election. The regulation stipulates that a violation is said to be structured, systematic, and massive (TSM) only if it happens in at least 50 subdistricts in a regency.
“Such a quantitative limit makes it hard to prove money politics practices and it won’t be able to preserve the integrity of the regional election. In addition, it would be difficult to process massive money politics violations with Article 73 paragraph (2) of the Pilkada Law if the candidate pair’s campaign team did it without showing any relation to the candidate pair, as the provision only stresses that TSM [violations] are done by the candidate pairs,” he explained.
Fahmi believed that vote counting at TPS that is not according to the regulations violates the voting and vote counting procedure. Agreements that flout procedure cannot justify vote counting or invalidate it. He believes a revote at TPS at which the violation occurs is the appropriate measure.
In contrast to Fahmi, the Respondent’s expert Titi Anggraeni said the early vote counting at several TPS in Laonti Subdistrict must be linked with Article 112 of the Pilkada Law.
“The rectification doesn’t always have to be a revote, but it could be ethical sanctions, not to be recruited as election administrators in the future, and stricter technical assistance programs. In terms of the proceedings in the Constitutional Court, there should be a correlation to the substance under the Court’s authority, which is the impacts on the [election] results,” she explained.
In their petition, Candidate Pair Muh. Endang-Wahyu Ade Pratama Irman alleged vote buying by Candidate Pair No. 2 Surunuddin Dangga-Rasyid (Relevant Party) as incumbents, who distributed Rp100,000 to potential voters through their campaign team. The Relevant Party also allegedly mobilized camat (subdistrict heads) and state civil apparatuses (ASN) in the regency by issuing a regent regulation regarding the details and distribution procedure of village funds, which was distributed one day before voting. The Petitioner also alleged that the incumbents had distributed social assistance to influence voters. In addition, the South Konawe KPU committed a violation by printing masks that displayed the incumbents’ tagline, which it distributed to its members. It had also allegedly ceased voting before all voters finished voting.
Writer: Fuad Subhan
Editor: Lulu Anjarsari
Uploader: Fuad Subhan
Translator: Yuniar Widiastuti
Editor: NL
Managing Editor: Budi Wijayanto
Translation uploaded on 3/4/2021 11:47 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.
Wednesday, March 03, 2021 | 18:39 WIB 414