Witnesses were sworn in to testify at an evidentiary hearing for the 2024 legislative election results dispute of North Sumatra Province/Regency, Thursday (5/30/2024). Photo by MKRI/Ifa.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Constitutional Court (MK) held a follow-up hearing on the dispute over the results of the DPD (Regional Representative Council) election for North Sumatra Province, filed by Faisal Amri. The hearing for case No. 04-02/PHPU.DPD-XXII/2024 took place on Thursday May 30, 2024 in the plenary courtroom. The session was presided over by Chief Justice Suhartoyo with Constitutional Justices Daniel Yusmic P. Foekh and M. Guntur Hamzah.

Ari Perdana Lubis testified as a witness for Faisal Amri during the provincial plenary recapitulation. “During the recapitulation, there were many doubts and suspicions regarding South Nias. The South Nias Regency KPU (General Elections Commission) repeatedly delayed the process due to unresolved synchronization issues,” he said.

He further stated that the data presented during the recapitulation session by the South Nias Regency KPU was not verified by the chair of the session. “According to the session chair, the data we presented was not authentic,” he said.

He highlighted a discrepancy in South Nias. “In Teluk Dalam Subdistrict, the C-result form recorded 10,321 valid votes, but the D-result form read out by the South Nias Regency KPU reported 11,900. When we tried to present this, we were not allowed because the documents lacked official stamps and wet signatures,” he asserted.

Lubis emphasized that he had filed an objection to Bawaslu (Elections Supervisory Body) but had not received any response. The recapitulation process was marked by ongoing arguments within the forum.

The Relevant Party Badikenita Br Sitepu presented Pither Doli Nelson Maduwu as a witness. Maduwu claimed that the counting/recapitulation process in South Nias Regency for the DPD election had proceeded smoothly without any disruptions. Throughout the recapitulation from the C-result copies to the D-result forms in South Nias Regency, there were no objections recorded in the incidents log.

“There were no objections from Faisal Amri because he had no witness present in South Nias,” Maduwu clarified.

Also read:

North Sumatra DPD Candidate Accuses KPU of Vote Inflation

KPU: No Additional Votes for other DPD Candidates in North Sumatra Province

At the preliminary hearing, the Petitioner objected to KPU Decree No. 360 of 2024 on the certification of valid votes for the 2024 DPD members from North Sumatra Province.

The Petitioner claimed that the Respondent had inflated the valid votes by 14,638 to increase the votes for DPD candidate No. 4 Badikenita Br Sitepu from 539,114 to 553,752. As a result, the Petitioner, with 546,936 votes, should have been declared in fourth place.

Author              : Utami Argawati
Editor                : Lulu Anjarsari P.
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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