Daniel Fajar Bahari Sianipar as the Legal Counsel (Respondent) while attending the hearing of Case No. 50-02-03-25/PHPU.DPR-DPRD-XXII/2024 for Members of the DPR, DPD, Provincial DPRD, and Regency / City DPRD Provinces in 2024 with the agenda of listening to the Respondent's answers and the testimony of the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) on Tuesday (5/14/2024). Photo by MKRI/Teguh.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Constitutional Court (MK) held hearing on the 2024 Legislative Election Results Dispute (PHPU) of the DPR (House of Representatives), DPRD (Regional Legislative Council) submitted by Rio Valentino Palilingan, a candidate for Minahasa Regency DPRD from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI P) for Minahasa 2. The hearing of Case No. 50-02-03-25/PHPU.DPR-DPRD-XXII/2024 was held by Panel 3 presided over by Constitutional Justice Arief Hidayat, with the Constitutional Justices Anwar Usman and Enny Nurbaningsih. The agenda of the hearing was to listen to the Respondent's (KPU) answer, the relevant party's statement, and Bawaslu's statement, as well as the ratification of evidence.

During the preliminary hearing held at the Constitutional Court on Friday (3/5/2024), Rio Valentino Palilingan (the Petitioner) requested the annulment of the General Election Commission Decree No. 360 of 2024 for the election of Minahasa Regency DPRD for electoral district 2. However, the Petitioner stated that he had not yet received a recommendation from the DPP PDIP to submit this case to the Constitutional Court.

KPU Response

The General Election Commission (Respondent), in response at the hearing, also referenced a letter of recommendation from the DPP PDI-P. "The Petitioner did not include the approval of the General Chairperson and Secretary General of the PDI-P, which is a required condition for submitting an Individual Election Results Dispute (PHPU) Petition. Thus, the Petitioner's request is baseless as stipulated in the Regulation of the Constitutional Court No. 2 of 2023," stated the Respondent's legal counsel, Daniel Fajar Bahari Sianipar.

The Respondent also considers the Petitioner's request to be unclear. The Petitioner alleges that there has been a reduction in their votes at several polling stations by 15 votes due to the cancellation by the polling station working committee (KPPS). This was attributed to ballots being torn at the edges and folds. However, the Petitioner fails to provide a detailed explanation regarding the specific locations of these polling stations, as well as the villages, sub-districts, and families where the vote reduction occurred. Consequently, the arguments in the Petitioner's petition are unclear and vague.

In addition, in the petition, the Petitioner does not include the argument for the cancellation of KPU Decree No. 360 of 2024. However, in the petition, the Petitioner requested that the KPU decision be canceled. Therefore, the petition is not based on the posita and is included in an unclear petition.

The Respondent then explained the vote acquisition comparison. The Respondent determined that the Petitioner's vote count was 2,318 votes and the Petitioner's was 2,333 votes. The results of the vote count have been carried out in stages at the sub-district level as recorded in Form Model D of the Results of the Sub-district DPRD-Kabko and at the plenary meeting of the recapitulation of the vote count at the district level as recorded in Form Model D of the Results of the District DPRD-Kabko, no objections were found. This is evidenced by the signature of the Petitioner's witness. Therefore, the Respondent's version of the Petitioner's vote is valid.

Bawaslu's response

The Elections Supervisory Body (Bawaslu) of North Sulawesi Province, represented by Donny Rumagit, said that there were no reports to the Bawaslu of Minahasa Regency during the counting stage until the recapitulation stage of the plenary results at the sub-district level in Minahasa 2 or the district level.

Bawaslu also did not find any evidence of alleged violations by election supervisors, from the polling station supervisor level to the Regency Bawaslu, during the counting stage up to the plenary meeting stage of the recapitulation of results at the Remboken District level or in other sub-districts within Minahasa 2. These findings are relevant to the Petitioner's case.

Also read: PDI-P Legislative Candidate's Efforts to Secure the Fourth Seat in Minahasa 2

Author : Siti Rosmalina Nurhayati.
Editor : Nur R.
Translator : Frity Michael Br Sembiring/Fuad Subhan

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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