The Respondent’s legal counsel Budi Rahman delivering a statement at follow-up hearing for the 2024 legislative election results dispute of South Sumatera Province, Monday (5/13/2024) on Panel 1. Photo by MKRI/Ifa.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — The General Elections Commission (KPU) as Respondent denied the arguments presented by the Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI), who objected to claim of vote difference in the electoral district of South Nias 5. The 2024 election results dispute (PHPU) case No. 179-01-15-02/PHPU.DPR-DPRD-XXII/2024 was held by the Constitutional Court (MK) on Monday, May 13, 2024in the plenary courtroom. The Petitioner questions the vote acquisition for the regency DPRD election in North Sumatra Province.

The KPU’s legal counsel Budi Rahman said that after comparing data to examine whether the alleged inflation and reduction of votes at 23 polling stations in two subdistricts had really occurred, it turned out that the Petitioner’s and the Respondent’s data did not match.

“In Toma Subdistrict, there was a rebuttal from the PSI and PAN, then after follow-up by Bawaslu, a decision was made to recount the votes on the C-result plano forms of TPS (polling stations) 1, 2, 3, 4. After the recount, there was no difference in vote acquisition. So, it is clear, Your Honors,” he said in front of Chief Justice Suhartoyo (panel chair) and Constitutional Justices Daniel Yusmic P. Foekh and M. Guntur Hamzah.

In response to the Petitioner’s argument of a reduction and inflation of PSI’s votes by 125 votes at 14 polling stations in 8 villages in Sidua’ori Subdistrict, the KPU said the vote acquisition followed the subdistrict-level of the regency/city DPRD D-result form and PSI’s witness had signed said form.

Also read: Votes Shifted to Gerindra, PSI Asks South Nias 5 Election Results Canceled

Meanwhile, Bawaslu (Elections Supervisory Body) said in its statement that during the counting of votes at the subdistrict level, no objections were raised by the witnesses of the political parties participating in the election and PSI’s witness. “And PSI’s witness signed the district D-result form,” said Suhadi S. Situmorang.

Furthermore, he continued, based on the results of the South Nias Regency Bawaslu’s supervision during the recapitulation at the regency level, the objections were recorded in the D-incident form by party witnesses who were present, including PSI’s, who objected to the results in Toma Subdistrict, which essentially meant that there were violations at TPS 1, 2, 3, and 4, with additional votes for the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the National Mandate Party (PAN).

“The two Democratic Party’s witness raised objections regarding the reading of the Toma Subdistrict recapitulation for the provincial level. There were differences in the results on the D-result form submitted by the PPK and the recapitulation on the C-result form in the possession of the Democratic Party’s witness,” he explained. For this reason, all objections have been followed up by the South Nias Regency Bawaslu.

PSI argued that there was a reduction of 1,833 votes to 1,616 votes. It argued that the events or violations that occurred in the Sidua’ori Subdistrict were the inflation of the Great Movement Party’s (Gerindra) votes and the reduction of the Petitioner’s votes. Meanwhile, the Petitioner’s votes were reduced in Toma Subdistrict.

For this reason, in its petitum, the Petitioner requests the Court to cancel the KPU Decree No. 360 of and certify the correct votes for the Petitioner for the DPRD election in South Nias Regency’s electoral district of South Nias 5 as follows: 1,833 votes for PSI and 1,604 votes for Gerindra.

Author               : Utami Argawati
Editor                : Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR                    : Andhini S.F.
Translator         : M. Ariva Aswin Bahar, 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.

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