Legal counsel Dharma Rozali Akbar conveying the petition’s subject matters at a hearing of the legislative election results dispute of Banten Province, Monday (4/29/2024). Photo by MKRI/Ifa.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Constitutional Court (MK) has started the preliminary hearings for the 2024 legislative election of the DPR (House of Representatives), Provincial and Regency/City DPRD (Regional Legislative Council) of Banten Province on Monday, April 29, 2024. One of the hearings were for case No. 46-01-17-16/PHPU.DPR-DPRD-XXII/2024 by the United Development Party (PPP), represented by chairman Muhammad Mardiono and secretary-general Arwani Thomafi.

At the hearing chaired by Chief Justice Suhartoyo, the Petitioner’s legal counsel Dharma Rozali Azhar stated that the General Elections Commission (KPU) Decree No. 360 of 2024 had certified PPP’s national vote at 5,878,777 or 3.87%. Based on this decree, the party did not meet the parliamentary threshold of 4%. It lacked 193,088 votes or 0.13% to qualify.

The Petitioner claimed that their version of votes obtained by them and the Change Indonesia Guardian Party (Garuda) differed from the KPU’s (Respondent) version, particularly in 35 electoral districts 19 provinces. Votes were transferred in the electoral districts of Banten I, II, and III, it alleges.

The Petitioner also claimed the KPU’s calculation error had resulted in a transfer of 5,000 of its votes in Banten I, 5,450 votes in Banten II, and 8,150 votes in Banten III to Garuda.

“So, the votes for Garuda, which were originally 131 votes in Banten I were incorrectly inflated to 5,131 votes, 104 votes in Banten II became 5,554 votes, and 103 votes in Banten III became 8,253 votes,” Dharma explained.

As such, the Petitioner’s votes in Banten I, originally 137,212 votes, were unlawfully reduced to 132,212 votes, in Banten II 69,812 votes were reduced to 64,362 votes, and in Banten III 101,606 votes were reduced to 93,456 votes.

The unlawful transfer of the Petitioner’s votes to Garuda continued until the national recapitulation as stipulated in the KPU Decree No. 360 of 2024. 

“The Petitioner has protested the vote transfer in those electoral districts to the Provincial Bawaslu (Elections Supervisory Body). On that case, the Court has good legal grounds and justifications to grant the Petitioner’s petition and establish the correct vote acquisition in accordance with the Petitioner’s account,” Dharma said.

TSM Violations in Unyur Village

The Petitioner further claimed that there had been anomalies and violations of Law No. 7 of 2017 on General Elections and the Constitutional Court Decision No. 20/PUU-XVII/2019, and that there were strong indication of structured, systematic, and massive violations in Unyur Village, Serang Subdistrict, Serang City during the voting at the polling committee (PPS) level in the electoral district (dapil) of Serang 1

Another legal counsel, Jordan Jonarto, claimed that there had been violations and errors in the process of the recapitulation of valid votes and invalid ballots compared to the voter turnout. There are strong indications pointing to structured, systematic, and massive violations in Unyur Village, Serang City.

“Another violation is that the community did not provide space to document the vote count results by the polling station working committee (KPPS), which is clearly contrary to KPU Regulation No. 9 of 2019 and KPU Regulation No. 3 of 2019 on voting and vote counting,” Jordan said.

The Petitioner therefore asked the Constitutional Court to grant the petition in its entirety; to reverse the KPU Decree No. 360 of 2024 on the certification of the 2024 presidential and legislative election results announced nationally on Wednesday, March 20, 2024 at 22:19 WIB especially in the electoral districts of Banten I, II, and III in Banten Province, the Serang City DPR member in the Serang I electoral district, and the Tangerang City DPRD member in the Tangerang 4 electoral district.

Author       : Utami Argawati
Editor        : Lulu Anjarsari P.
Translator  : Dzaki DIfa Al Hadiid, Yuniar W. (RA)

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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