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JAKARTA, PUBLIC RELATIONS – The Constitutional Court (MK) handed down Decision No. 139/PHP.BUP-XIX/2021 on the 2020 Mandailing Natal (Natal) Regent Election Result Dispute. The Petition was filled by Candidate Pair No. 2 H. Dahlan Hasan Nasution and H. Aswin (Dahlan-Aswin) regarding the Re-Vote (PSU) of Madina Regent Election.

According to the Court, Dahlan-Aswin’ petition was completely groundless. Hence, the Court in its verdict declared to reject the petition.

“[The Court] rejected the Petition for its entirety, said Chief Justice Anwar Usman chaired the plenary session accompanied by eight Constitutional Justices as members, in the ruling hearing held at MK on Thursday (03/96/2021).

The Court declared valid the Decision of Madina General Election Commission (KPU) No. 724/PY.02-Kpt/1213/KPU-Kab/IV/2021 concerning the Determination of the Vote Count Result Recapitulation after the Court Decision No. 86/PHP.BUP-XIX/2021 in Madina Regent Election, April 26, 2021 and declared the annulment of Madina KPU Decision No. 771/PL.02.7-Kpt/1213/KPU-Kab/V/2021 concerning the Determination of the Elected Candidate Pair for Regent and Deputy Regent on May 3, 2021, which was issued before the a quo decision and ordered the Respondent to renew the decision on the determination of the elected candidate pair of Madina Election.

In its consideration, the Court conveyed the legal basis for determining the scrutiny of the voters list which will be used as the basis for the PSU.

“According to the Court, the scrutiny of the voter listwhich  carried out by the Respondent was a correct action because it had a clear legal basis and was implemented in accordance with KPU Letter No. 266/PY.02.1-SD/06/KPU/III/2021, said Constitutional Justice Daniel Yusmic P. Foekh who read out the Court's opinion.

Hereinafter, the Court considered the argument of Dahlan-Aswin (the Petitioner) who accused the Relevant Party (Candidate Pair No. 1 Muhammad Jafar Sukhairi Nasution and Atika Azmi Utami Nasution) of practicing money politics during the PSU. Against this argument, the Court asserted that it was not legally grounded and did not according to facts. Likewise, with respect to the Petitioner's argument regarding the existence of an illegal campaign at the Relevant Party’s house on April 5, 2021, the Court opined that it was also legally groundless.

Previously, the Petitioner accused that the Relevant Party carried out money politics during the PSU. It was denied then by the Relevant Party. In fact, it was the Petitioner who gave away 1.5 to 2 million rupiahs by collecting voters’ ID Card at Polling Stations (TPSs) during the PSU. It aimed to make voters could not came to the TPS as ID Card is mandatory as the voting requirement. Therefore, the Relevant Party believed that the Petitioner’s argument should be set aside.

The Relevant Party also rejected the Petitioner's argument regarding the existence of an illegal campaign at their house on April 5, 2021, which was incorrect. Because on April 5, 2021, the Relevant Party were till on their way from Medan to Mandailing Natal. In addition, the Relevant Party denied the Petitioner's argument that they carried out a village development campaign by involving the State Civil Apparatus (ASN). This was untrue and groundless.

The Relevant Party actually accused the Petitioner of inviting the public to take unlawful actions in various ways, namely by using the position and authority of a civil servant in Madina Regency. One of them was by distributing money to PSU voters. Furthermore, the Petitioner's argument that the Relevant Party paid an amount of money to voters to abstain and not to vote Candidate Pair No. 2 was far-fetched.

 

 

 

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

Editor: Indah Apriyanti

Managing Editor: BW

Translation uploaded on 04/06/2021 at 8.34 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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