The Relevant Party’s legal counsel Darul Huda Mustaqim delivering a statement at a follow-up hearing for the 2024 legislative election results dispute of South Kalimantan Province on Panel 1, Tuesday (5/14/2024). Photo by MKRI/Ifa.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — The hearing for the regency/city DPRD election results dispute of South Kalimantan Province resumed on Tuesday, May 14, 2024 in the plenary courtroom. The hearing for case No. 191-01-03-22/PHPU.DPR-DPRD-XXII/2024 was heard by Chief Justice Suhartoyo (panel chair) and Constitutional Justices Daniel Yusmic P. Foekh and M. Guntur Hamzah on Panel I.

Akhmad Mukhlis representing Bawaslu explained the report of alleged election violations by complainant Harli Muin. Basically, there is an allegation of administrative election violations during the national recapitulation by the General Elections Commission (KPU).

“The verdict is that the reported, the Central KPU, has been proven legally and convincingly to have violated the procedures and mechanisms for implementing the vote recapitulation at the national level,” Akhmad revealed.

The violations allegedly harmed PDI-P (Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle) as the complainant and resulting in PDI-P losing one seat for the electoral district of South Kalimantan II for the DPR election.

“There was a national level objection at that time. The KPU did not heed it because it should have been resolved at all levels at TPS (polling station) by the polling station working committees (KPPS), by the subdistrict election committee (PPK), at the regency and provincial levels. It should have been resolved but it came out at the national level and was included in allegations of election administration violations and came to the Central Bawaslu,” explained Akhmad.

Bawaslu member Lolly Suhenty explained that this issue arose during the national recapitulation. There are two mechanisms available to address such an issue: rapid administration or ordinary administration.

“Due to the many issues in question, rapid administration was not possible. Bawaslu then checked all the data they had, including C-Results and C-Bawaslu data. From the results of the examination of 670 polling stations in Kota Baru, Tanah Bumbu, and Banjarmasin City, additional votes were found. Bawaslu realized that it did not have the authority to handle disputes over results and could only state that there were proven violations of procedures and procedures. After the national recapitulation is completed, Bawaslu’s authority ended,” she said.

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Follow up by Bawaslu

The KPU’s (Respondent) legal counsel Nurkhayat Santosa said that during the plenary meeting of the national vote recapitulation in Jakarta, the Petitioner also reported administrative violations to the Central Bawaslu with the Central KPU as the reported. The report has been followed up with a Bawaslu decree.

“The decree does not at all state that there was an error in the vote count and nor does it order the correction or comparisons of vote acquisition of both the Petitioner’s votes and other parties’,” said Nurkhayat.

He also explained that the comparison between the DPR C-result form and the subdistrict DPR D-result form submitted by the Petitioner from each polling station in Banjarmasin City was incorrect. The data submitted by the Petitioner cannot be accounted for.

“It is proven that out of 1,940 polling stations in Banjarmasin City, the Petitioner were only able to compare the vote acquisition in 386 polling stations and even then, it is not necessarily accountable. So, that the Petitioner’s argument that there were 37,741 inflated votes for PAN in Banjarmasin City is legally baseless and should be rejected,” he said.

In its petition, continued Nurkhayat, the Petitioner also questioned 4 polling stations in Tanah Laut Regency: TPS 5 of Sumber Mulia Village, TPS 9 of Sumber Jaya Village, TPS 4 of Bluru Village, and TPS 2 of Pantai Harapan Village, but it did not present comparative data nor did it explain the correct votes. Therefore, the Petitioner’s arguments have no legal basis and must be rejected.

Nurkhayat asserted that the allegation that the election was dishonest and unfair and violated election principles is only an assumption and an to trick the Court. The process of vote recapitulation at all levels of the 2024 election, especially for the DPR election in South Kalimantan II, was in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.

No Legal Basis

Meanwhile, the National Mandate Party (PAN) through Muhammad Ridho Fuadi rejected all arguments presented by the Petitioner. PAN stated that the allegation regarding the addition of 278,005 votes was untrue and had no legal basis. PAN’s 278,005 votes were based on the provincial D-result form, D-result for of Banjarmasin City, D-result form of Tanah Bumbu Regency, and D-result form of Kotabaru Regency.

The Relevant Party’s vote acquisition of 278,005 has passed the recapitulation process in stages at the subdistrict, regency/city, provincial, and national levels. It is consistent and there are no differences in the results of the calculation at each level.

Author               : Utami Argawati
Editor                : Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR                    : Andhini S.F.
Translator         : Siti Nurhaliza, 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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