The Petitioner’s legal counsel Bambang Wahyu Ganindra (center) at a ruling hearing for the 2024 legislative election results dispute of West Java Province, Tuesday (5/21/2024). Photo by MKRI/Ifa.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Constitutional Court (MK) ruled to dismiss the 2024 legislative election results dispute (PHPU) petition for the electoral district of West Java filed by the United Development Party (PPP). The ruling for Case No. 100-01-17-12/PHPU.DPR-DPRD-XXII/2024 was delivered on Tuesday, May 21, 2024, in the plenary courtroom.

“[The Court] adjudicated, relating to the petition’s subject matter, to rule that the Petitioner’s petition is inadmissible,” said Chief Justice Suhartoyo, accompanied by the other eight constitutional justices. Regarding this ruling, Constitutional Justice Arsul Sani exercised his right to abstain.

In the legal considerations delivered by Constitutional Justice M. Guntur Hamzah, the Court stated that the Petitioner raised issues on the vote counts for the Petitioner and Garuda (Indonesian Guard of Change Party), claiming discrepancies between the Respondent’s and the Petitioner’s versions in 35 electoral districts across 19 provinces.

“However, in explaining the alleged vote transfer from the Petitioner to Garuda in six electoral districts in West Java Province, the Petitioner only detailed vote losses in West Java III and V. For West Java II, VII, IX, and XI, the Petitioner merely included tables comparing the vote counts of the Petitioner and Garuda according to the Petitioner and the Respondent, without providing clear and adequate explanations. Despite this, the Petitioner requested the Court to certify the correct vote counts for the Petitioner and Garuda in these districts in the petition’s petitum,” explained Justice Guntur.

He added that the Petitioner had failed to specify the polling stations and recapitulation level for the vote transfer in West Java V, merely listing claimed vote losses without clear, adequate data to demonstrate the transfer to Garuda.

“The Petitioner described alleged vote shifts by the Respondent at several polling stations, but these descriptions did not show any reduction in the Petitioner’s votes or inflation of Garuda’s votes. Instead, the Petitioner showed changes in votes for other parties, which are irrelevant to the Petitioner’s petition,” stated Justice Guntur.

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

Regarding the Petitioner’s petitum for the electoral district of Depok City 5, Justice Guntur noted that the Petitioner had failed to clearly explain the polling stations and recapitulation levels where vote miscounts occurred, leading to a 1,500 vote discrepancy favoring the Relevant Party. Furthermore, the Petitioner lacked detailed data on the transfer of 698 votes in Cilodong Subdistrict and 802 votes in Tapos Subdistrict to Gerindra. Despite providing some descriptions, it made no requests regarding these vote transfers in its petitum.

“Based legal facts and paragraph [3.10] above, the Petitioner’s petition does not meet the qualifications as stipulated in Article 75 of the Constitutional Court Law and Article 11 paragraph (2) letter b points 4 and 5 of the Constitutional Court Regulation No. 2 of 2023,” added Justice Guntur.

The Petitioner’s petition lacked clear polling station locations and detailed explanations of the vote transfer to Garuda, including whether the transfer involved party or candidate votes. Additionally, for Depok City 5, the descriptions of the vote miscount by the Respondent and the correct counts by the Petitioner were unclear, and there was a discrepancy between the petition’s reasons (posita) and the requests to the Court (petitum).

“The Court has no doubt in upholding the Respondent’s and the Relevant Party’s objections on the unclear descriptions of the vote miscount announced by the Respondent and the correct vote counts according to the Petitioner, as well as the contradiction between the posita and petitum. Therefore, the Court deems the Petitioner’s petition obscure.” Justice Guntur concluded.

The United Development Party (PPP) argued that the 2024 legislative election results for West Java II, V, VII, IX, and XI were unlawfully allocated to Garuda due to the conversion of the 4% parliamentary threshold.

Author               : Utami Argawati
Editor               : Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR                    : Fauzan Febriyan
Translator          : Dzaki Difa Al Hadiid, 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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