Ramdhany Tri Saputra as the Respondent's legal counsel testifying in the hearing of the 2024 Sukabumi Regent Election Result Dispute for case No.235/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025. Photo by MKRI/Ifa
JAKARTA, MKRI - The Sukabumi Regency General Election Commission (KPU) refuted the allegation of vote inflation in the 2024 Sukabumi Regent Election result. KPU Sukabumi as the Respondent conveyed the rebuttal during the Hearing of the Respondent's Answers, Relevant Party Statements, and Bawaslu Statements, as well as the Ratification of the Parties' Evidence in the Courtroom on Friday, January 17, 2025.
The hearing of the Case Number 235/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 was conducted in front of Panel 1, Chief Justice Suhartoyo (panel chair), and Constitutional Justices Daniel Yusmic P. Foekh and M. Guntur Hamzah. The Petitioners the Candidate Pair Number 1, Iyos Soeantri and Zainul. The Relevant Party is the Candidate Pair Number 2, Asep Japar and Andreas.
According to the Respondent, the vote inflation argued by the Petitioner was inaccurate, the error was in the table that only lists male voters.
“In the tabulation filed in the column of valid and invalid ballots, it is stated that there is a difference or what is considered [as the vote] inflation. What happened was the Petitioner's mistake in entering the total number of voters because the Petitioner only entered the total number of voters in a list of voters only for the male gender,” stated Ramdhany Tri Saputra.
The Respondent also answered the Petitioner's arguments regarding the violation in alleged structured, systematic, and massive (TSM) manners, especially related to the involvement of the state civil apparatus (ASN). According to the Respondent, this has never been reported to the competent authorities until the time limit set by the laws and regulations.
Because they do not feel that they have committed a violation as an organizer, the Respondent in their petitum requests that the Court continue to declare the Sukabumi Regency KPU Decree No. 3057 of 2024 on the certification of the 2024 Sukabumi regent election result valid and true.
Read also:
Iyos-Zainul Allege Vote Inflation at 469 Polling Stations in Sukabumi Regency
In the hearing, the Relevant Party denied the allegation regarding the vote inflation, the Relevant Party said that the Petitioner only took examples from the three polling stations, namely polling station 8 of Berekah Village, polling station 6 of Ciwalet Village, and polling station 17 of Cidahu Village.
“Where the [matter of the] sampling, the Petitioners do not mention which the survey institution they use, [with] what certificate. Meanwhile, those three polling stations did not represent the whole polling stations in Sukabumi District,” stated Andri Yules, the Relevant Party legal counsel.
According to Bawaslu Sukabumi, three polling stations have been issued recommendation letters. One of them, TPS 8 Berekah Village, Bojonggenteng Subdistrict, was recommended for re-voting and has been conducted.
“It [The re-voting] has been carried out according to the KPU letter which was conducted on December 6,” argued Mohamad Muidul Fitri Atoilah, a member of the Sukabumi Bawaslu who was present at the hearing.
Meanwhile, at other polling stations, recommendations were issued regarding ethics that had been followed up with coaching instructions from the KPU to the voting committee (PPS).
As for the vote inflation, Bawaslu Sukabumi admitted that no reports had been filed to the Bawaslu. However, Bawaslu Sukabumi agreed that there were reports related to special events in 11 sub-districts. Of the 11 sub-districts, 10 of them experienced the same special incident, namely the witness from the Petitioners was reluctant to sign during the recapitulation of the vote results.
“And in one of the sub-districts, there was a special incident in Bantargadung sub-district, namely a writing error in Limusnunggal Village, Bantargadung Sub-district. It [The incident] has been corrected during the recap at the sub-district level,” Muidul said.
Read also:
Petition Case No.235/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025
The Respondent Response
Bawaslu Statement
The Relevant Party Statement
Author : Ashri Fadilla.
Editor : N. Rosi.
Translators : Dinita Aktivia/FS (RA)
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.
Friday, January 17, 2025 | 19:09 WIB 152