The Constitutional Court’s held the hearing for the 2024 legislative election results dispute of Aceh, Tuesday (5/6/2024). Photo by MKRI/Bayu.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Aceh Party has withdrawn the general election results dispute (PHPU) of North Aceh for the Aceh Regency/City Legislative Council (DPRK), which was registered as No. 144-01-21-01/PHPU.DPR-DPRD-XXII/2024. Muzakir Manaf as Chairman and Kamaruddin Abubakar as Secretary General of the Aceh Party sent the withdrawal letter to the Constitutional Court (MK) on May 2, 2024. Regarding the withdrawal, Muntasir as the Aceh Party Candidate Number 5 said the withdrawal was invalid because the signature of the Secretary General of the Aceh Party was fake.

This was revealed in the second hearing of this case, which was presided over by Constitutional Justices Arief Hidayat, Anwar Usman, and Enny Nurbaningsih, Tuesday May 7, 2024, in Panel 3.

During the hearing, Justice Arief Hidayat read out the withdrawal letter by the Aceh Party. Related to this, Erizon S. Chaniago said that the withdrawal letter was only received by the legal counsel on May 7, 2024 afternoon. He also showed a permission letter for Muntasir to become the Petitioner in the case signed by the General Chairman and Secretary General of the Aceh Party on March 21, 2024.

Erizon said the withdrawal letter was allegedly delivered by the Aceh Party Candidate Number 2, Abdul Muthaleb. Responding to this statement, Justice Arief emphasized that the Court accepted the withdrawal from the Aceh Party regardless of who delivered it. As for the signature of the Secretary General of the Aceh Party, which Muntasir considered fake, Justice Arief said that the signature authenticity could only be assessed by the Criminal Investigation Body (Bareskrim), not the Court.

Meanwhile, the KPU (General Elections Commission) as the Respondent explained that they had also seen the same withdrawal letter received by the Court. The Respondent also stated that this was a party petition, not an individual petition. Therefore, if the withdrawal letter has been sent by the chairman and secretary of the Party, then the withdrawal letter is valid. Thus, according to the Respondent, this petition has been withdrawn. "In our opinion, this petition has been withdrawn, Your Honors," said the Respondent's legal counsel.

Also read: Aceh Party Concerns Over Election Results in North Aceh 5

In the meantime, Bawaslu received a WhatsApp message from the Aceh Party's Central Executive Board (DPP) containing the withdrawal of the same petition received by the Court. "We received it via WhatsApp from the Aceh Party's Central Executive Board (DPP)," said Safwani as a representative of Bawaslu.

Previously, at the preliminary hearing, the Petitioner argued that the margin of votes between the Petitioner version and those certified by the Respondent. According to the Petitioner, the addition of votes carried out by transferring the votes of other Aceh parties and candidates to candidate number 2, Abdul Muthaleb, in Syamtalira Aron and Tanah Pasir Sub-districts as many as 963 votes. There were additional invalid votes for Abdul, as the Aceh Party Legislative Candidate for electoral district (dapil) North Aceh 5 during the recapitulation at the Syamtalita Aron and Tanah Pasir Sub-districts levels. The addition of these votes caused Abdul's total votes to increase from 2924 (according to the C.Results Plenary and C. Results Copy forms) to 3,887 votes in dapil 5, as stated in the Sub-district and Regency/City DPRK D. Results form.

Author: Adam Ilyas
Editor: Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR: Tiara Agustina

Translator: Putri Ratnasari

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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