Vote Inflation in Tutuk Tolu Subdistrict in Maluku Explained
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NasDem’s witness in Tutuk Tolu Subdistrict Yakuba Rumodar attending a hearing for the 2024 legislative election result dispute of Maluku Province, Tuesday (5/28/2024). Photo by MKRI/Teguh.


JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Constitutional Court (MK) held an evidentiary hearing for the 2024 DPRD (Regional Legislative Council) election results dispute petitioned by Fandy Anwar Renjaan, candidate No. 7 for the electoral district of East Seram Regency on Tuesday, May 28, 2024. At the hearing for case No. 244-02-14-31/PHPU.DPR-DPRD-XXII/2024, the Court heard the witnesses’ testimonies: Yakuba Rumodar, M. Kasim Rumodar, Moh. Ali Agam Rumfot, Ahmad Yani Urath, and Mahya Lausiry for the Petitioner as well as Syarifuddin Rumakey, M. Jafar Arey, Kisman Kilian, Taib Wangsi, and Musa Rumakey for the Respondent.

Before Deputy Chief Justice Saldi Isra and Constitutional Justices Ridwan Mansyur and Arsul Sani on panel 2, NasDem (National Democratic Party) witness in Tutuk Tolu Subdistrict Yakuba Rumodar said that initially, the election had gone smoothly. The C-copy form read out matched the form that the witnesses had. Before the subdistrict election committee (PPK) certified the election results, the vote tally was suspended for two days. As a result, the Democratic Party’s votes were inflated from 680 to 895. Rumodar said that the PPK chairperson only read out the total votes in general, not in detail, so the party witnesses felt cheated.

“We [witnesses] were not given the opportunity to protest directly. We were asked to sign [the document detailing election results] without seeing the number of votes. When the regency plenary meeting was over and only on March 7, 2024 were we sent a copy of the actual results,” said Yakuba.

M. Kasim Rumodar, a witness for Garuda (Indonesian Guard of Change Party), said that votes for candidate number 2 Darwis were inflated by the PPK from 215 to 680. Meanwhile, Moh. Ali Agam Rumfot, a PPK witness for the presidential election, said that the recapitulation and calculation process had run normally from February 17 to March 3, 2024. Then a two-day suspension was carried out. On March 5, 2024, the recapitulation was resumed. The PPK chairperson read out the overall results without the details, so other witnesses did not know the vote acquisition of the candidates.

“PPK said to just sign the D-result form first. It will be sent out via [messenger app WhatsApp] and the witnesses all signed. Only on March 7 was the [form] sent out. I only received it on March 8 because I asked, even though I was not a witness for the legislative election,” said Rumfot.

Ahmad Yani Urath, a witness for Gelora (Indonesian People’s Wave Party) at the regency level, said that in electoral district 2 there were five subdistricts. The announcement of election results in four subdistricts went well, he said, because party witnesses were given opportunity to object. Meanwhile, in Tutuk Tolu Subdistrict, where the PPK had committed violations, the witnesses protested when the KPU D-result form was read out, but they were not provided with an opportunity to object to the vote inflation within the Democratic Party.

“We (Bawaslu) did not have time to report, it’s just that during the ratification of the regency D-result form, Bawaslu and Gelora witness did not sign the D.result form in electoral district 2. I also did not sign it,” Urath said.

PKB (National Awakening Party) witness at the subdistrict level Mahya Lausiry recounted the events at the plenary meeting in the subdistrict that had gone smoothly and confirmed that there were incidents as explained by other witnesses about the obstacles at the regency-level recapitulation.

No Objections

KPU (General Elections Commission) representative Syarifuddin Rumakey explained that the subdistrict-level recapitulation plenary meeting was attended by the panwascam (subdistrict election supervisory committee) witnesses from political parties as well as polling committees (PPS). The process from February 18 to March 5, 2024 went smoothly. The PPS read out the results of the vote acquisition at the plenary meeting. There were no protests because the subdistrict results were signed in several parts. Rumakey denied the statement that pages were signed without statement of vote acquisition of election participants.

Also read:

Democratic Party Internal Candidates Challenge the Votes of 25 Polling Stations in Seram Bagian Timur 2

KPU Response the Dispute over Democratic Party Vote Acquisition in Seram Bagian Timur 2

At the previous hearing on Tuesday, April 30, the Petitioner said that the KPU as Respondent showed results that the Petitioner received 887 votes, while the Democratic Party candidate number 2 Darwis Rumakey (Relevant Party) received 920 votes. However, the Petitioner’s records showed that the Relevant Party should have received 705 votes, while the Petitioner received 888 votes. The Petitioner’s legal counsel Yandri Sudarsono said that 25 polling stations in Tutuk Tolu Subdistrict had more votes than they should. The Petitioner requests the Court to cancel the KPU Decree No. 360 of 2024 as it pertains to the electoral district of East Seram Regency 2 for the election of East Seram Regency DPRD election; 25 polling stations in Tutuk Tolu Subdistrict, East Seram Buru Regency; to certify the correct vote acquisition for the East Seram Regency DPRD election in electoral district 2 for Democratic Party candidates as follows: 705 votes for candidate number 2 and 888 votes for candidate number 7.

Author              : Sri Pujianti
Editor               : Nur R.
Translator         : M. Ariva Aswin Bahar/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.


Tuesday, May 28, 2024 | 14:38 WIB 121