The Respondent’s legal counsel Mohamad Ulin Nuha delivering a statement at a follow-up hearing for the 2024 legislative election results dispute of West Java Province, Wednesday (5/8/2024). Photo by MKRI/Ifa.

---

JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Constitutional Court (MK) held a hearing on the 2024 legislative election results dispute on Wednesday, May 8, 2024 at the plenary courtroom. The case No. 100-01-17-12/PHPU.DPR-DPRD-XXII/2024 was filed by the United Development Party (PPP), who argues that the Petitioner did not meet the requirements of the parliamentary threshold of 4%, so there was a difference of 193,088 votes or equivalent to 0.13%.

At the hearing chaired by Chief Justice Suhartoyo, the KPU’s (General Elections Commission) legal counsel Mohamad Ulin Nuha firmly denied the arguments put forward by PPP. “The Petitioner’s argument regarding the migration 6,901 votes to the Indonesian Guard of Change Party (Garuda) in West Java electoral district (dapil) II was false because based on the Respondent’s vote recapitulation in West Java II and the central/national level recapitulation, the Petitioner obtained 68,231 votes,” said Ulin.

He said the vote recapitulation process was carried out in stages, from the TPS (polling stations) level to the national level. “If in the tiered process of recapitulation there are errors or discrepancy in data sources during the counting process, these have also been corrected at open plenary meetings starting from the subdistrict to the national level attended by supervisors and witnesses of election participants,” he stressed.

Furthermore, the KPU emphasized that PPP’s claims of vote migration and vote inflation were not proven. The KPU stated that the general election process was in accordance with the rules stipulated in the Election Law.

Also read: PPP Alleges Vote Purge in Four West Java Electoral Districts

Relevant Party Asks Petition Rejected

At the same hearing, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) as a Relevant Party strongly rejected the Petitioner’s arguments except for matters it recognized as accurate. Through R. Hikmat Prihadi, PKS assessed that PPP’s arguments were not in accordance with Court’s procedural law for the general election results dispute of DPR (House of Representatives) and DPRD (Regional House of Representatives) (i.e. the Constitutional Court Regulation/PMK No. 2 of 2023). The Petitioner’s did not provide a comparison of votes in the Petitioner’s version and the Respondent’s version as well as the votes of the Relevant Party, nor did it explain in detail the loss of votes—at which polling stations, which villages the loss of votes occurred.

“Therefore, the petition is not in accordance with the procedural law for the general election results dispute of DPR (House of Representatives) and DPRD (Regional House of Representatives),” said Hikmat.

He explained the Relevant Party also firmly rejected the Petitioner’s argument regarding vote inflation or vote transfer from PPP to the Great Movement Party (Gerindra) or to other parties including the PKS. This was evident from the fact that the number of votes obtained by all parties from the results of the recapitulation at the subdistrict election committee (PPK) of Cilodong and Tapos Subdistricts to the recapitulation at the Depok City KPU did not change see any change in number. In addition, during the recapitulation process at the Cilodong and Tapos Subdistricts, no vote inflation was found and there were no objections raised by the Petitioner’s witnesses or special incident notes made by the subdistrict election committee (Panwascam).

Bawaslu’s Statement

In the context of handling election violations, Bawaslu’s representative Nuryamah explained that Bawaslu had handled reports related to alleged election administrative violations carefully and based on existing evidence.

For example, the Bogor Regency Bawaslu carefully handled reports related to differences in political parties vote acquisition data at the subdistrict level. Then the Depok City Bawaslu has made efforts to prevent violations by issuing advisory statements to relevant parties.

“The West Java Provincial Bawaslu has handled the Report on alleged election administrative violations through the rapid event mechanism Report No. 004/LP.AC/ADM.PL/BWSL PROV/13.00/III/2024, reported by PPP’s West Java Province regional executive board (DPW) witness Supriatna at the plenary meeting for the vote count and certification of the 2024 election results in West Java Province. The report was related to differences in the party vote acquisition data for the DPR election in West Java V. Based on the results of the examination of the a quo report by the West Java Province Bawaslu,” Nuryamah emphasized.

Thus, he requested the Court to reject the petition filed by PPP. In addition, in handling election violations, Bawaslu at various levels has worked in accordance with its duties to ensure the integrity and validity of the democratic process in general elections.

The Petitioner has made a report to Bawaslu and the Integrated Law Enforcement (Gakkumdu) on March 20, 2024 in order to follow up on the vote inflation incident that had harmed its votes. Depok City Bawaslu explained that it had never received reports on the handling of violations or any information related to the report from the Central Bawaslu.

Author              : Utami Argawati
Editor               : Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR                    : Andhini S.F.
Translator         : Jessica Rivena Meilania, Yuniar W.

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.

---