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Constitutional Justice Saldi Isra read out the legal considerations of the Petition at the ruling hearing of the Malaka Regent Election Result Dispute, Thursday (18/03) in the Plenary Court Room. Photo: PR/Teguh.

JAKARTA, PUBLIC RELATIONS – The Constitutional Court (MK) rejected the case filed by Candidate Pair No. 2 Stefanus Bria Seran and Wandelinus Taolin. In the ruling hearing session of the 2020 Malaka Regent Election Results Dispute on Thursday (18/3/2021), Constitutional Justice Manahan M.P. Sitompul and Saldi Isra read out the Court's legal considerations.

Regarding case No. 24/HP.BUP-XIX/2021, Manahan said the arguments for the existence of a double Citizenship Identification Number (NIK) and permanent voter list (DPT), the Court was of the opinion that the allegations regarding the DPT cannot stand alone. This is in accordance with the Constitutional Court Decision No. 85/PUU-X/2012 as per March 13, 2013, which basically related to the unfinished population data management. In the a quo case, the discrepancy of this data has been clarified by the Head of Malaka Population and Civil Regency Office (Dukcapil).

The Court had also been observing the engineering problems of the DPT. In general, the Petitioner argued that the DPT was intended so that voters could vote more than once and mark-up the vote of certain candidate pair. From several cases argued by the Petitioner, the double vote was not proven by sufficient and convincing evidence.

"The Petitioner only presented evidence in the form of Model A.3 KWK, Model C Attendance of Additional Voters List (DPTb) in several Polling Stations (TPS), Model C. Copy-KWK Results, Results of DPT Synchronization with Population Data Base, Asterisk DPT, and Village Population Certificate. Hence, the Court could not make sure whether the voters whose names are mentioned by the Petitioner exercised their voting rights or not,” said Manahan in the hearing chaired by the Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court Anwar Usman, accompanied by other Constitutional Justices in the Plenary Court Room.

Electronic Identity Card (e-KTP) and Certificate

Constitutional Justice Saldi continued to read out the Court's legal considerations in connection with the argument that the Respondent had issued 328 copies of e-KTP and ID certificate, spread over 12 sub-districts. The Court was of the opinion that the Petitioner did not describe the relationship between their issuance and the use of e-KTP with the votes acquired by each candidate pairs. Apart from that, continued Saldi, the Petitioner also did not clearly describe whether the voters were used to elect particular candidate as they could not prove the truth of the abuse of e-KTP and ID certificate by voters.

"Even if the certificate and e-KTP were used by voters in order to exercise their voting rights, this was permitted based on the Decision of the Constitutional Court No. 20/PUU-XVII/2019 dated March 28, 2019. Therefore, regarding the issuance of ID certificate spread across 12 sub-districts before the day of voting and the use of e-KTP at polling stations in 12 sub-districts in Malaka Regency was unwarranted according to law," said Saldi in a virtual hearing attended by all parties from their residences.

Court Decision

Meanwhile, in relation to money politics at the previous hearing, it was revealed that it had been decided by Atambua District Court's Decision. In essence, continued Saldi, the defendant Yohanes Bria Klau (part of the campaign team for Candidate Pair No. 02 Stefanus Bria Seran and Wendelinus Taolin) was legally and convincingly proven guilty of a crime of money politics. In addition, the court's decision was also corroborated by Kupang High Court Decision.

However, the Petitioner still objected to the decision because it was not legally binding and was in the process of cassation. Regarding this matter, the Court found the fact that one of the considerations contained in Kupang High Court Decision, although not yet legally binding, had clearly considered the position of the defendant Yohanes Bria Klau.

"Based on these considerations, the Court was of the opinion that the Petitioners' argument regarding the practice of money politics carried out by Candidate Pair No. 1 Simon Nahak and Louise Lucky Taolin who promised to provide salaries for customary stakeholders (fukuh) if they chose them, was not legally grounded," said Saldi.

Previously, the Petitioner said the Candidate Pair No. 1 promised to provide salaries for customary stakeholders if they chose the candidate pair. Due to this incident, the Petitioner did not see Election Supervisory Body (Bawaslu) giving a warning and tended to let the incident happened. According to the Petitioner, in money politics case, an administrative sanction should be given in the form of cancellation as a candidate for regional head election in accordance with the provisions of Article 73 Paragraph 1 and Paragraph 2, and can be criminalized under Article 187a of Law No. 10/2016.

Apart from that, the Petitioner also argued that there had been a systematic violation in the form of stealth voters inclusion in the DPT. This was found in a large number and spread across almost all TPS in 12 sub-districts through several modes, including the Respondent modifying the identity of stealth voters, such as name, ID Number (NIK), Family Card Number (NKK), date and month of birth, and address. For this reason, in their petitum, the Petitioner asked to be determined as the winner and disqualify Candidate pair No. Simon Nahak and Louise Lucky Taolin. (*)

 

Writer: Sri Pujianti

Editor: Lulu Anjarsari

Uploader: Rudi

Translator: SO (NL)

Managing Editor: BW

Translation uploaded on 03/19/2021 at 15.15 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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