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Maruarar Siahaan secara virtual menyampaikan keterangan sebagai Ahli Pemohon dalam sidang Perselisihan Hasil Pemilihan (PHP) Bupati Mandailing Natal yang digelar di MK pada Kamis (27/5/2021) siang. Foto Humas/Panjoi Erawan.

JAKARTA, PUBLIC RELATIONS – The third hearing of Mandailing Natal (Madina) Regent Election Results Dispute filled by Candidate Pair No. 2 Dahlan Hasan Nasution and Aswin held in the Constitutional Court (MK) on Thursday (27/5/2021). The agenda of the hearing (Case No. 139/PHP.BUP-XIX/2021) was to proof and hear the statements from witnesses and experts as a further hearing from the previous session. 

Maruarar Siahaan presented as an expert from the Petitioner. He stated that the implementation of Madina Regional Head Election with the vote acquired which determined by General Election Committee (KPU) turned out gave an objection to Candidate Pair No. 1. One of the Petitioner’s objection was that Candidate Pair No. 1 did the campaign before the Re-Voting (PSU) which according to the regulations is prohibited.

"The question was, did the campaign affect the vote result? Especially if there were allegations of money politics. This was of course carried out in a series of campaigns which are not permitted under the regulations,” said Maruarar Siahaan to the Panel of Justice led by Constitutional Justice Saldi Isra accompanied by Constitutional Justices Manahan MP Sitompul and Constitutional Justice Daniel Yusmic P. Foekh.

Therefore, ignoring several other objections of the Petitioner, according to Maruarar became a big problem since the vote count recapitulation from the PSU was invalid because the PSU process had various legal violations. If the PSU winning candidate was proven to committed a violation, they could be disqualified or the result of the vote acquisition was declared null and considered invalid. So, if a wrong PSU process occurred, then the final calculation result will also be wrong.

Witness Accounts

In the hearing, Petitioner's Witness Tina Indrian Pangaribuan presented online and said that on April 6, 2021 there was a campaign from Candidate Pair No. 1 Muhammad Jafar Sukhairi Nasution and Atika Azmi Utami Nasution. With 100 other people, she witnessed the campaign asking for support to win the Candidate Pair No. 1 at the PSU and promised to build the village where Tina was born.

"I also received some money which was Rp 500,000,” said Tina.

Meanwhile, Hairul Marpaung (Petitioner) testified about Atika Azmi Utami Nasution (Relevant Party) with the community and members of Pancasila Youth organization in Kampung Baru area. At that time, there was an appeal to everyone present to win Candidate Pair No. 1 on the PSU.

Hereinafter, Madina KPU Madina (Respondent) presented the Chairperson of Polling Station Working Committee (KPPS) at Polling Station (TPS) 001 in Kampung Baru Village, Rinto Hasudungan as a witness who explained that the Final Voters List (DPT) at TPS 001 was 438 voters, Transferred Voters List (DPPh) was 0 voters, and Additional Voters List (DPTb) was 5 voters. So, the total was 443 voters. On the other hand, Rinto revealed that the PSU process was running safely, orderly and according to procedures. Nevertheless, he found that one voter could not use his voting rights because the ID Number (NIK) on his ID Card was different from the NIK on the DPT.

Madina KPU also presented the Chairman of KPPS at TPS 002 in Kampung Baru Village, Resvita Meriana Purba who explained that the number of DPT at TPS 002 was 434 voters, DPPh was 0 voters, DPTb was 3 voters. Thus, the number of voters at TPS 002 was 437 voters, with 256 invitations distributed to voters. As many as 181 letters of invitation were not distributed with details of 8 people died, 49 people changed addresses, 115 people could not be found, and 9 people were unknown.

The Meaning of Votes Determination

The Relevant Party presented Heru Widodo as an expert who discussed the significant meaning of vote acquisition determination and how it influenced the determination of the elected candidate. "’Significance’ had a meaning as something that was considered important or meaningful because it could have an influence or impact and cannot be separated from a problem itself. In the context of regional head elections, ‘significant’ in principle could change the configuration of the vote result. ’Significance’ was a very decisive element in annulled disputes over results or in correcting the results of the regional head elections," Heru explained.

With these elements, said Heru, not all violations could be recovered if they were not significant. With regard to the dispute over the qualitative results, a significant element could be determined from the final result of the correction whether to change the Petitioner's position to gain the most votes or not. Even though the proving process corrected the vote acquisition, as long as it did not change the configuration of the Petitioner's victory or the defeat of the Relevant Party, it was categorized as insignificant and could not affect the determination of the elected candidate.

Next, Relevant Party’ witness Doni Sanjaya Rizky said that on April 9, 2021, someone offered him Rp 1 million. It was known that the money provider was Zubaedah as a member of the Legislative Council (DPR) from the Golkar Party. Doni said that the money was given because of his meeting with Ridwan as the head of Madina Civil Registry and Population Agency (Disdukcapil) Office who asked Doni to collect ID cards for the people of Kampung Baru Village.

"It aimed to bind the public to elect Candidate Pair No. 2," Doni explained to the Panel of Justices.

Meanwhile, in the implementation of the PSU, Madina Election Supervisory Body (Bawaslu) stated that it had carried out inherent supervision since the PSU preparation period. Bawaslu also received a report related to the Petitioner's argument that on April 6, 2021 there was a campaign of Candidate Pair No. 1 which reported by Aswin (Candidate Pair No. 2) on April 25, 2021.

 

Writer: Nano Tresna Arfana.
Editor: Nur R.
Translator: SO

Editor: Indah Apriyanti

Managing Editor: BW

Translation uploaded on 28/05/2021 at 14.34 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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