Witnesses are oath-taking to give statements in the PHPU case for Members of member of DPR, (Regency/Province) DPRD Riau Province, on Tuesday (28/05) in Panel 1 Courtroom. Photo by MKRI/ Ifa.

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JAKARTA, MKRI - The Constitutional Court (MK)  held a hearing No. 208-02-04-04/PHPU.DPR-DPRD-XXII/2024 for the 2024 DPR-DPRD (House of Representatives-Regional Legislative Council) election results dispute Riau Province Dapil Riau II. The case was petitioned by Mohamad Idris Laena, candidate for the House of Representatives from the Party of Functional Groups (Golkar) on Tuesday, May 28, 2024..

During the hearing, Bayu Dwi Anggono, a Professor of the Faculty of Law at the University of Jember, serving as an Expert presented by the Petitioner, stated that the technical classification in Article 53 paragraph (5) PKPU on Election Voting and Vote Calculation, which declares valid the name of candidates for DPR members, is a form of respect for the principle of popular sovereignty. According to Anggono, this provision provides accommodation space for voters who not only choose political parties but also determine the desired DPR member candidates, thus upholding the principle of popular sovereignty in the electoral process.

“Based on this authority, the polling station working committee (KPPS) is not authorized to take other actions that are different from the laws and regulations. Moreover, the KPPS position is only as a group formed by the polling committee (PPS) to carry out voting at polling stations (vide Article 1 No. 14 of the Election Law). So that the KPPS action is a technical action in voting activities at the polling station, not an act of making substantial decisions, especially contrary to statutory regulations, “explained Bayu.

According to Bayu, the court loss of the Petitioner in this case, who is a candidate for the House of Representatives of Riau Electoral District 2 from the Golkar Party, resulted from the actions of a number of KPPS who entered the votes cast on the party symbol or party column and one of the names of legislative candidates as party votes, not DPR candidate votes, during the calculation at the polling station. This action allegedly caused the loss of 4,505 votes for the Petitioner in five districts: Kampar, Indragiri Hulu, Indragiri Hilir, Pelalawan and Kuantan Singingi.

“The KPPS agreement is an unconstitutional act and has clearly distorted the sovereignty of the people who want DPR candidates. The transfer of votes for DPR Candidates who were transferred to Political Parties on ballots that were passed in the party image section and the candidate column, because of the KPPS agreement. This is an action that cannot be legally justified,” he said.

Settlement in Bawaslu

The KPU as the Respondent presented experts, including Agus Riewanto who is a Lecturer in Constitutional Law at the Faculty of Law, Sebelas Maret University. He explained that violations of election administration during the recapitulation of results must be resolved by Bawaslu in place and on the same day according to procedures. The settlement of election administration violations is carried out in Bawaslu according to the level, based on the provisions of Article 40, 41 paragraph (1) letters b and c, Article 41 paragraph (3), and Article 42 of Perbawaslu No. 8 of 2022.

Also explained, Political Party Witnesses of Election Participants can submit reports of alleged violations, irregularities, and / or errors in the implementation of the recapitulation of the results of the vote count of Election Participants and submit objections to procedures and / or differences in the recapitulation of vote count results if there are things that are not in accordance with the provisions of laws and regulations to PPK, (Regency/City, Provincial) KPU.

Meanwhile, the Relevant Party Expert, Herdensi Adnin, said that Law No. 7 of 2017 provides space for proper and fair resolution of all violations, disputes and disputes, both by preventing them from occurring, and by overcoming them if they have already occurred. This law also mandates the establishment of an Election Supervisory Body (Bawaslu) structured from the Election Supervisory Board, Provincial Election Supervisory Board, Regency/City Election Supervisory Board, to the lowest level, namely the Polling Station Supervisor (PTPS).

On the same day, the Panel of Constitutional Justice also listened to the witness statement presented by the Petitioner, the Respondent's witnesses and the witnesses of the Relevant Parties.  The Petitioner's witness, Ida Rosita, explained that there were double votes that were transferred to party votes. “There were 9 votes that were transferred,” he said.

According to Metrius, who is the Head of KPPS at polling station 14 Kualu Village, Kampar Regency, the voting and counting went successfully. “There were no objections and 10 party witnesses attended.”

At the preliminary hearing, the Petitioner argued that there was a difference in the Petitioner's votes in Riau electoral district II, which consisted of 5 (five) regencies, namely Kampar Regency, Kuantan Singingi Regency, Indragiri Hulu Regency, Indragiri Hilir Regency, and Pelalawan Regency. This difference occurred because in many TPS in the five regencies, the votes cast were counted as party votes, not the Petitioner's votes.  

Author  : Utami Argawati
Editor   : Lulu Anjarsari P.
Translator     : Siti Nurhaliza/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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