Legal counsel ruling Ridwan Syaidi Tarigan at a ruling hearing of the Jakarta Provincial DPRD election results dispute for Jakarta 2 electoral district, Monday (8/19/2024). Photo by MKRI/Ifa.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Constitutional Court (MK) rejected the petition by the National Democratic Party (NasDem) on the 2024 election results dispute of the DKI Jakarta Provincial DPRD (Regional Legislative Council) in Jakarta 2 electoral district. The ruling hearing for Decision No. 289-01-05-11/PHPU.DPR-DPRD-XXII/2024 took place on Monday, August 19, 2024.

“Concerning the subject matter, [the Court] rejects the Petitioner’s petition in its entirety,” said Chief Justice Suhartoyo alongside the other seven constitutional justices.

The petition was filed because of the Constitutional Court decision in June where the Court had ordered the North Jakarta City KPU (General Elections Commission) to repeat the recapitulation for the DKI Jakarta Provincial DPRD election for Jakarta 2 electoral district in Cilincing Subdistrict based on the C-result forms at 233 polling stations within 15 days since the verdict was pronounced, without having to report to the Cort. However, the Petitioner questioned the fact that the KPU had not completed repeat recapitulation at 33 out of the 233 polling stations following the Court-ordered timeframe.

Delivering the Court’s legal opinion, Constitutional Justice Enny Nurbaningsih explained that the Court could understand the KPU’s reasoning for continuing the repeat recapitulation for 33 polling stations, i.e.30 in Sukapura Village and 3 in West Semper Village, whose preparation to implementation to carry out the previous Constitutional Court decision had been carried out in a series of processes. These processes, along with its obstacles and dynamics, could not necessarily be attributed to the alleged reduction of the Petitioner’s votes or the addition of votes for other political parties, especially since the Petitioner could not prove its allegations. In this context, the Petitioner must be able to prove its arguments with valid evidence and convince the Court regarding its vote acquisition claims.

“However, the failure to implement the repeat recapitulation was a unity of process from preparation until uninterrupted implementation. So, the Court believes the entire process from preparation until repeat recapitulation was legitimate,” Justice Enny said.

Election Document Storage

However, the Court felt the need to highlight the fact that some C-result forms were missing. Despite the fact they were then found, the process had delayed the entire process of repeat recapitulation. This  shows a weakness in the election document storage system and its supervision.

The issue of missing documents should be a concern for election organizers, given that the number of polling stations in a village are high, which could be anticipated since the preparation of the election. Anticipatory actions include the determining electoral districts, certifying final voters lists (DPT), determining number and locations of polling stations, and determining effective supervisory and law enforcement methods so that the stages of election have been confirmed pre-voting—i.e. voting, vote count, and recapitulation.

“Early anticipation will help minimize things that could administratively hinder the entire election process, in casu repeat recapitulation,” Justice Enny said.

Therefore, in order to prevent this from repeating, election organizers—in this case the KPU and Bawaslu (Elections Supervisory Body) as supervisor—must have implemented stricter steps in storing election documents, in casu the C-result forms, by making a clear and easily implemented standard operating procedure (SOP). Only this way can the purity of voters’ votes be maintained since the polling station-level.

Also read:

NasDem Asks for Revote at 34 Polling Stations in Jakarta 2

KPU Insists Re-recapitulation in Cilincing Followed Court Ruling

North Jakarta KPU Member Reveals Why Cilincing Repeat Recapitulation Was Delayed

NasDem believed the repeat recapitulation by the General Elections Commission (KPU) had been carried out past the Court-ordered deadline. The KPU certified 72,819 votes for NasDem and 24,999 for the Democratic Party. The Petitioner could not yet confirm its correct votes due to issues at 34 polling stations (TPS) after the Constitutional Court Decision No. 09-01-14-11/PHPU.DPR-DPRD-XXII/2024 on June 10. However, the Petitioner claimed that a margin of 728 votes had benefitted Democrat.

The Petitioner explained that on June 23 the KPU had certified a repeat recapitulation by comparing the C-result forms and the subdistrict D-result forms at 233 polling stations in seven villages in Cilincing Subdistrict, which the North Jakarta City Bawaslu, the Petitioner’s witnesses, and witnesses of the other political parties attended. It alleged that the KPU had only completed repeat recapitulation at 200 polling stations and could not continue with the other 33 within that timeframe.

The Petitioner believed that the repeat recapitulation must have been completed by Tuesday, June 25 at 14:51 WIB. However, the KPU had continued the recapitulation until Wednesday, June 26, which was past the Court-ordered deadline.

The Petitioner casted doubt on the results of the repeat recapitulation, without which it would have obtained the second DKI Provincial DPRD for Jakarta 2 electoral district.

Author         : Mimi Kartika
Editor          : N. Rosi
PR              : Tiara Agustina
Translator    : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

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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