PDI-P Fails to Explain Fraud Allegations in Manado 5

The Respondent (Bawaslu) while attending the 2024 Legislative election results dispute (PHPU) hearing for Manado electoral district on Tuesday (14/5/2024). Photo by MKRI/Bayu.

JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Constitutional Court (MK) held hearing of the 2024 general election results dispute (PHPU) for the DPR (House of Representatives) and DPRD (Regional Legislative Council), which filed by the PDI-P (Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle). In the case No. 58-01-03-25/PHPU.DPR-DPRD-XXII/2024 PDI-P requests the annulment of the General Election Commission (KPU) Decree No. 360 of 2024 along the Manado City DPRD election, Electoral District (dapil) Manado 5, North Sulawesi Province.

The hearing of the case was held in Panel 3 presided over by Constitutional Justices Arief Hidayat, Anwar Usman and Enny Nurbaningsih, on Tuesday, May 14, 2024. The agenda of the hearing was to hear the response from the General Elections Commission (KPU) as the Respondent, the statements from the Relevant Parties, and the testimony from the Elections Supervisory Body (Bawaslu), as well as to validate evidence.

KPU Response

The KPU in its reply stated that the PDI-P's petition was obscuur libel or unclear. After review, the Respondent considers that all arguments submitted by the Petitioner are unclear and not based on the law and do not meet the requirements of a petition as in the provisions of Article 75 of Law No. 24 of 2003 on the Constitutional Court, in conjunction with Article 9 paragraph (1) letter b number 4 and 5 of the Constitutional Court Regulation No. 2 of 2018.

"The subject matter of the Petition does not describe, and explain the existence of fraud in the vote counting and recapitulation that affects the number of results of the Petitioner's vote, whether at the polling station, sub-district, regency/city and national levels. The Petitioner's arguments also do not explain errors or vote counting fraud, and do not clearly describe, when, where, by whom and how the fraud or error was committed," said the KPU legal counsel, Hanter Oriko Siregar.

According to the Respondent, the Petitioner only explained that there was an administrative violation in which there were 4 voters whose voting areas were at polling stations 9 and 10, Banjer Village, Tikala Sub-District, Manado City who did not meet the requirements as voters in the DPK (special voters list) because they were registered in the DPT (final voters list) of other polling stations. This is not the authority of the Court, on the grounds that in the main petition the Petitioner does not explain and describe the error or fraud in the determination of the results of the vote count by the Respondent which affects the number of votes acquired by the Petitioner - according to the provisions and main requirements for filing a Petition in the Court based on Article 75, Law No. 24 of 2003 on the Constitutional Court, in conjunction with Article 9 paragraph (1) Letter b No. 4 and 5 of the Constitutional Court Regulation Number 2 of 2018.

Hanter emphasized that the administrative issue had been processed by the Manado City Bawaslu so that the Petitioner's argument was not based on law and was not the authority of the Court. In addition, he continued, the Petitioner did not explain and describe clearly the errors in the vote count results that had been determined by the Respondent at which polling stations or at what level the Petitioner's votes had a margin or difference, as well as the KPU's error in determining the decree to acquire the number of the Petitioner's votes. The Petitioner also does not describe and include the correct vote acquisition according to the Petitioner.

Then, the Respondent denies any and all of the statements, opinions, arguments, claims and requests of the Petitioner a quo, except for matters that are expressly, categorically and specifically recognized as valid and true by the Respondent.

Therefore, in the Petitum, the Respondent requests the Court to grant the Respondent's exception in its entirety; reject the Petitioner's petition in its entirety; declare as valid the KPU Decree No. 360 of 2024 regarding the case a quo, and determine the vote acquisition of the Petitioner for the Manado City DPRD election, in Manado 5 which is correct according to the Respondent.

Bawaslu Testimony

Donny Rumagit, a member of the North Sulawesi Bawaslu, represented the Bawaslu in the hearing. He said that the petition submitted by the Petitioner related to voting at polling station 10 of Banjer Village, Tikala Sub-district, Manado City, North Sulawesi Province where there were voters who lived in Banjer Village but had Jakarta Residence ID Card so they were not given permission to vote. In addition, there were 7 people with Banjer Village Residence ID Card and were not registered in the DPT so they were included in the DPK. Bawaslu said this problem had been resolved up to the Manado city level.

Regarding writing errors in the number of valid votes from 203 votes to 205 votes and the number of invalid votes from 7 to 5 at polling station 9 Banjer Village, Tikala Subdistrict, Manado City, KPPS (polling station working committee) has solved the problem.

"Bawaslu Manado City has carried out supervisory duties in accordance with the Monitoring Report on the plenary meeting of vote recapitulation and counting for Tikala Sub-district at the Manado City Level, North Sulawesi Province, which basically explains that the plenary meeting at the Tikala Sub-district level has confirmed that all problems occurred have been resolved at the Plenary Meeting at the Sub-district Level," said Donny.

The Manado City Bawaslu handled violations documented in Report No. 011/LP/PL.Kota/25.01/III/2024, dated March 21, 2024, based on the submission from Reporter Sofiyanti Husain against the KPU Manado City. This report was registered and deemed to meet the formal and material requirements. It was reviewed and registered as No. 005/LP/ADM.PL/BWSL.KOTA/25.01/III/2024 on March 24, 2024. The violation underwent the Election Administrative Violation Examination Session conducted by the Manado City Bawaslu regarding this petition.

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PDI-P Fails to Explain Fraud Allegations in Manado 5