Saleh, KPU's legal counsel, while delivering the Respondent's Answer at the continued hearing on the General Election Results Disputes of West Java Provincial DPRD Members in Bogor City District 3, on Tuesday (13/8/2024) in the Courtroom of the Constitutional Court. Photo by MKRI/Ifa.
JAKARTA, MKRI –The Constitutional Court (MK) held a hearing on Tuesday, August 13, 2024, regarding the General Election results dispute (PHPU) of West Java Provincial DPRD Member for Bogor City District 3. The case, registered under Case Number 291-01-04-12/PHPU.DPR-DPRD-XXII/2024, was filed by the Golkar Party.
The Petitioner, feeling aggrieved by the Bogor City KPU's actions, referred to a previous Constitutional Court Decision Number 94-01-04-12/PHPU.DPR-DPRD-XXII/2024, also filed by the Golkar Party. In that decision, the Constitutional Court directed the KPU to compare the Petitioner's votes based on the document C.Results-DPRD Regency/City with D.Results Sub-district-DPRD Regency/City Bogor at 10 polling stations.
During the hearing, Saleh, the legal counsel representing the KPU (the Respondent), addressed the Petitioner's claim. The Petitioner argued that the Golkar Party's votes in the Form C.Results were recorded as 135 votes, while in the D.Results Form, the votes were recorded as 69 due to corrections made during the Open Plenary Meeting of the Recapitulation of Vote Counting Results at the Sub-district level. Saleh explained that valid votes were recorded twice—once as a candidate's vote and once as a political party's vote. This duplication led to discrepancies between the number of valid votes for political parties and candidate votes, as well as between the number of voters and the number of ballots used.
"The changes were agreed upon without any objections from the Petitioner's witnesses, including the witnesses from the Political Parties present, as well as the Panwaslu and PKD Golkar witnesses," stated Saleh.
Saleh further explained that the Petitioner's argument, which asserts that the correct Form C Results should be those that are still clean without any additional writing outside the designated columns, is unfounded and untrue. In reality, there was a situation where the total number of valid and invalid votes exceeded the number of ballots used. Additionally, it was discovered that the total votes for the candidates were also counted as the party's votes, leading to double counting.
"In response to this situation, the Respondent, during the Plenary session led by Muhammad Yusuf, head of the West Bogor District PPK (Subdistrict Election Committee), sought input from the West Bogor Panwascam (subdistrict election supervisory committee) and the witnesses present regarding these conditions. Witnesses from the PSI Party, Nasdem Party, Golkar Party, PDIP Party, PKS Party, and Ummat Party all agreed to recount the ballots by opening the ballot box (Open Ballot Box). The Plenary Leader then proceeded to recount the ballots, and the results of this recount were used as the basis for correcting the entries in Form C Results. These corrected results were subsequently used to fill out Form D. Sub-district Results," Saleh explained.
Saleh further stated that there were numbers written outside the designated columns on Form C Results. Consequently, the Form C Results held by the Petitioner's witness are no longer valid, as they still refer to the uncorrected vote count results prior to the plenary recapitulation of the vote tally at the sub-district level.
Rectification of the Petitioner's Vote Acquisition
Additionally, the Respondent firmly rejected the Petitioner's claim that the Respondent had altered the Petitioner's vote count from 204 to 108 votes. In reality, this adjustment was the result of a correction or improvement process that took place at the sub-district level.
Saleh explained that the corrections made by the Respondent were witnessed by the Panwascam of West Bogor Sub-district, including the Petitioner's witnesses. He pointed out that similar corrections had been made at seven other polling stations in West Bogor Sub-district, which the Petitioner accepted because the results were favorable to them.
"During the Plenary Meeting led by the Head of the West Bogor Sub-district PPK, Muhammad Yusuf, it was discovered that at TPS 030 in Cilendek Timur Village, there were more valid votes than the number of ballots used. This Recapitulation Plenary Meeting was conducted by the Respondent, under the leadership of the Chairman of the West Bogor District PPK, Muhammad Yusuf, and was witnessed by the West Bogor District Panwas and party witnesses from PKS, PAN, NASDEM, PDIP, and Gerindra. These party witnesses immediately stated that the vote tally did not match," Saleh explained.
The Petitioner Manipulated
On the same occasion, the Constitutional Court also heard testimony from the Nasdem Party as a Related Party. In the hearing, Ridwan Saidi Tarigan as the attorney for the Related Party stated that during the pairing process the Petitioner attempted to manipulate the situation by disputing the corrections that had been made by the Respondent with the initials in the correction. This after being noticed applies to all votes of political parties participating in the Election, but with misleading arguments the Petitioner denies and does not want to see the correction of the votes of all political parties and only wants the Petitioner's vote to be corrected.
“The Related Party has thoroughly reviewed the overall vote counts for all political parties and found that there was a match between the number of ballots used and the vote acquisition of the political parties. Therefore, the Petitioner's argument lacks legal basis,” Ridwan explained.
In a statement, Bawaslu mentioned that the Bogor City Bawaslu had inquired about the discrepancy in the Petitioner's vote before and after the renvoi on the Model C form for District/City DPRD results at polling station 36 in Curug Village, which was not initialled by the Bogor City KPU.
Herminus Koto, Commissioner of Bawaslu West Java, stated, “According to the Bogor City KPU, the issues at polling station 17 in Bubulak Village and polling station 36 in Curug Village are similar because there was a double calculation of valid votes for political parties. This double counting was corrected by the Bogor City KPU after opening the ballot boxes and recounting at the Vote Acquisition Recapitulation Meeting at the West Bogor District Level. Regarding the issue of initials, the KPU of Bogor City argues that whether initials are affixed on each page or at the end of the page does not impact the validity of the vote count.”
In the preliminary hearing held on Friday, August 13, 2024, the Petitioner expressed dissatisfaction with the Bogor City KPU's handling of the implementation of Constitutional Court Decision Number 94-01-04-12/PHPU.DPR-DPRD-XXII/2024, which was also filed by the Golkar Party. The Court's decision required the KPU to reconcile the Petitioner's votes based on the C.Hasil-DPRD Kab/Kota document with the D.Hasil Kecamatan-DPRD Kab/Kota Bogor at 10 polling stations.
During the hearing, Daniel Febrian Karunia Herpas, the Petitioner's legal counsel, reported that during the reconciliation process between Form C.Hasil and Form D.Hasil Kecamatan on June 19, 2024, irregularities were found, particularly at polling station 17 in Bubulak Village, polling station 36 in Curug Village, and polling station 30 in Cilendek Timur Village. Daniel highlighted that in Form C.Hasil for polling station 36 Curug Village, the Golkar Party's vote was listed as 34 votes. During the comparison, it was noted that a number was written on the right side of each column in the Form C.Results without any initials.
Author: Utami Argawati
Editor : Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR : Fauzan Febriyan
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.
Tuesday, August 13, 2024 | 20:32 WIB 30