Chairul Umam testifying on behalf of Bawaslu at the examination hearing for the 2024 Pemalang regional election results dispute, Monday (1/20/2025). Photo by MKRI/Ifa

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JAKARTA, MKRI — The Pemalang Elections Commission (KPU) and Elections Supervisory Body (Bawaslu) refuted the arguments of the petition filed by Candidate Pair 1 Vicky Prasetyo and Mochamad Suwendi (Petitioners) on the Pemalang regent election results dispute with Case No. 115/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025. In this case, the Pemalang KPU acted as the Respondent and the Bawaslu as a Statement Provider. The two parties gave their response and statement in the examination hearing at the Constitutional Court (MK) on Monday (20/1/2025).

Meanwhile, Candidate Pair 3 Anom Widyantoro and Nurkholes (Relevant Party) did not attend this hearing which is intended to hear the responses from the Respondent, Relevant Party, and Election Supervisory Body and to validate evidence of the Parties. The hearing was presided over by Chief Justice Suhartoyo (panel chair) and Constitutional Justices Daniel Yusmic P. Foekh and M. Guntur Hamzah on panel 1.

First of all, the Respondent highlighted the formal issues with the petition, including the filing deadline. The Respondent claimed that the petition lodged by the Petitioners had exceeded the deadline.

“[The deadline] should be [on] December 5, 2024. Even the Petitioners submitted it at 23.59 and was accepted by the Constitutional Court on Saturday, December 7, 2024 shortly after midnight,” said Yulianto, the Respondent’s legal counsel.

Moreover, the Respondent mentioned the Petitioners’ claim that the gap between them and the Relevant Party was only 0.5 percent. The claim is unfounded, the Respondent refuted, because in fact, the vote difference was over 0.5 percent.

In addition, in their Response, the Respondent discussed a number of things, one of which is the allegation of vote buying. They confirmed that they did not get recommendations from the Pemalang Bawaslu.

"Regarding the reports or findings of alleged money politics violations in the Pemalang regent-vice regent election, the Pemalang KPU never received any recommendations from the Pemalang Bawaslu," Yulianto stated.

The Pemalang Bawaslu admitted to receiving a report on money politics (vote buying), especially videos that promised the distribution of envelopes (money). The report was also examined in the Gakkumdu (Integrated Law Enforcement). Subsequently, Gakkumdu stated that the reported incident did not meet the elements of the election crime as stated in Article 73 paragraph (4) in conjunction with Article 187 a paragraph (1) of Regional Elections Law. "Gakkumdu recommends that the process of processing the violations be stopped," said Chairul Umam, a member of the Pemalang Bawaslu.

In addition to envelopes, the Bawaslu also received a report containing video footage allegedly promising 14 motorcycle units and 140 electric bikes worth Rp2 billion. This report was also not investigated because the Petitioners as the complainant did not complete the report within the determined period.

"In principle, Bawaslu at that time provided the complainant an opportunity to complete the address of the report, the description of the violation incident, and other evidence [within] two days at the latest," he said.

In the preliminary hearing on Thursday (1/9/2025), Vicky-Suwendi (Petitioners) alleged frauds in the 2024 Pemalang regent election. Such alleged fraud, among others, was the distribution of parcels containing money and goods to the public prior to election day which included the logos associated with a certain candidate pair.

In the petitums, the Petitioners requested the Court to annul the 2024 Pemalang KPU Decree No. 2139 on the certification of the 2024 Pemalang regent election vote count recapitulation. They also requested the Court to order the Pemalang KPU or the Respondent to conduct a revote.

Author : Ashri Fadilla

Editor : N. Rosi

Translator : M. Hafidh Al Mukmin/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.

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