Andi Syafrani, acting as legal counsel, while delivering the main petition in the Legislative Election Result Disputes for Banten II on Friday (9/8/2024) in the Constitutional Court. Photo by MKRI/Ifa.

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JAKARTA, (MKRI) – Following the announcement of the legislative election vote comparison results by the General Elections Commission (KPU) on Saturday, July 13, 2024, the Constitutional Court (MK) held hearings on the 2024 Legislative  Election Results Dispute (PHPU Legislatif) for House of Representative (DPR) of  Banten II. The case, registered as Number 286-01-14-18/PHPU.DPR-DPRD-XXII/2024, was filed by the Democratic Party and was heard on Friday, August 9, 2024, in Panel Courtroom I of the Constitutional Court Building.

In a hearing presided over by Chief Justice Suhartoyo, Andi Syafrani as the legal counsel, conveyed arguments related to the petition. He stated that according to the Decree issued by the Respondent, the Democratic Party was determined with 142,279 votes, while the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) received 142,154 votes. However, the Respondent's tally shows 142,154 votes for PDIP and 142,129 votes for the Democrats. "According to our calculations, the Petitioner still leads PDIP by a margin of 125 votes," he stated.

Andi, the Respondent, argued that there was an intention to implement the Court's decision incorrectly by not including the election participants during the opening of ballot boxes in Serang City. The Petitioner claimed that the C-Results for the PDIP votes at 20 polling stations in Serang City were missing and refused to validate them using electronic data and C.Results-DPR.Copy. Furthermore, the Petitioner asserted that this led to 189 of their votes being invalidated at the 20 polling stations where the original DPR C-Results were missing. The Petitioner also questioned the comparison and/or determination of the votes of all political parties from the recount at these 20 polling stations, which, according to the Constitutional Court's ruling, should have been limited to PDIP votes only.

Andi explained that C-Plano results from 20 polling stations have gone missing, with no explanation provided for their disappearance. These stations include polling stations 1, 4, and 17 in Panggung Jati Village; polling stations 2, 6, 14, and 18 in Lialang Village; polling stations 4, 10, and 11 in Umbul Tengah Village; polling stations 1 and 2 in Cilowong Village; polling stations 5 and 7 in Kalang Anyar; and polling stations 4, 5, 14, 19, 22, and 28 in Dragong Village. As a result, during the final plenary session at the KPU, the C-Plano results from these 20 polling stations could not be presented.

“Strangely, the missing planos are only for PDIP, while the planos for the other parties are all present,” he said. “In the plenary meeting of Bawaslu Serang City, due to the absence of the planos for these 20 polling stations, it was suggested that the vote count be conducted based on Bawaslu's circular letter. This circular specifies that the process of counting ballots should be carried out as long as it does not exceed the time limit set by the Constitutional Court's ruling. However, when making this suggestion, Bawaslu did not consider this crucial detail,” he added.

Previously,  the  Court granted the Legislative PHPU petition for Banten II, which was filed by the Democratic Party. In Decision Number 183-01-14-16/PHPU.DPR-DPRD-XXII/2024, the Court ordered the KPU to compare the PDI-P's votes recorded in form C of the results for the DPR with those in form D of the sub-district results.

“[The Court] states that the vote results for candidates for the House of Representatives in the Banten II constituency must be matched concerning the votes of the Related Party (PDIP) between C. Results-DPR and D. District Results-DPR,” said Chief Justice Suhartoyo during the hearing to pronounce the decision on Thursday, June 6, 2024. In the ruling, the Constitutional Court ordered the KPU to compare votes at 120 polling stations in Serang City and Serang Regency. The petition was filed by the Democratic Party, which alleged that there was an inflation of votes for the Banten II DPR RI candidate from PDIP.

For information, the KPU held a plenary meeting on the national recapitulation of the 2024 legislative elections on Sunday, July 28, 2024. This meeting was a follow-up to the Constitutional Court's decision to grant 44 out of 297 PHPU cases related to the 2024 legislative elections. The rulings varied, including orders for re-voting, recounting votes, recapitulating votes, or determining legislative election results based on the Constitutional Court's cases.

Editor             : Lulu Anjarsari P

PR                 : Fauzan F.

Translator       : 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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