Petitioner, Khairil Anwar, explaining the petition at the preliminary hearing of the 2020 South Kalimantan Province election dispute, Thursday (9/23/2021) in the courtroom. Photo by Humas MK/Panji.

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Thursday, September 23, 2021 | 19:49 WIB

JAKARTA, Public Relations—The Constitutional Court (MK) held the preliminary hearing for the 2020 South Kalimantan Province election dispute on Thursday afternoon, September 23, 2021. The case No. 151/PHP.GUB-XIX/2021 was Khairil Anwar, who filed the petition due to indication of vote inflation by the South Kalimantan Provincial General Elections Commission (KPU, Respondent).

Before giving the Petitioner the chance to convey the petition, Deputy Chief Justice Aswanto (panel chair) explained that regional head election (pilkada) tickets may file a petition to request the annulment of the certification of the vote counting results. He then asked the Petitioner to clarify his legal standing in the case.

“Were you an election ticket?” Justice Aswanto asked. “No, Your Honor,” the Petitioner answered.

The deputy chief justice then asked the Petitioner the reason to file the petition. The Petitioner said that, as a citizen, he saw novum or new evidence of alleged double voting in the South Kalimantan KPU’s certification of the election results.

Justice Aswanto then read out Article 157 paragraph (5) of the Pilkada Law, which stipulates that a petition on election results can only be filed within three workdays since the provincial/regency/city KPU announces the certification of the election results. Based on the South Kalimantan KPU’s certification, the petition should have been filed by June 11, 2021.

“Your (petition) is dated August 25, while it should be June 11,” Justice Aswanto clarified.

While, the Petitioner was aware that he did not meet the requirements of legal standing and deadline, he would like to make the Court aware of the indication of vote inflation by the KPU.

“I only wanted to inform the Court that there has been an indication of vote inflation in the KPU’s certification,” he explained.

The Petitioner then conveyed his petition. He alleged that 4,520 votes had been inflated in Barabai Subdistrict, Central Hulu Sungai Regency at TPS (polling stations) 13 and 8 of Barabai Darat; TPS 1 and 7 of East Barabai; TPS 5 and 7 of North Barabai; TPS 6, 7, 8, and 9 of West Barabai; TPS 2 of Bukat; TPS 2 of Banua Binjai; and TPS 2 of Ayuang. 

In the petitum, the Petitioner requested that the Court annul the South Kalimantan KPU Decree No. 37/PL.02.6-Kpt/63/Prov/VI/2021 or order them to certify 870,340 votes for Candidate Pair No. 1 (869,621 plus 719) and 830,490 votes for Candidate Pair No. 2 (828,591 plus 1,899) or to order them to prove 1,968 mystery votes.

Before concluding the hearing, Deputy Chief Justice Aswanto informed the Petitioner that the next hearing would commence on October 6, 2021 at 08:00 to hear the Respondent’s response and the testimony of the Elections Supervisory Body (Bawaslu), as well as to verify the Respondent’s and Bawaslu’s evidence.

Writer        : Utami Argawati
Editor        : Nur R.
PR            : Tiara Agustina
Translator  : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Translation uploaded on 9/24/2021 08:10 WIB

Disclaimer: The original version of the news is in Indonesian. In case of any differences between the English and the Indonesian versions, the Indonesian version will prevail.

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