JAKARTA, LEGAL LITERACY – The Constitutional Court (MK) held a follow-up hearing with the agenda of listening to the Respondent's answers and the testimony of the Election Supervisory Body (Bawaslu) for the General Election Results Dispute (PHPU) case for prospective members of the Intan Jaya Regency Regional People's Representative Council (DPRD), Intan Jaya Electoral District (Dapil) 3, which was submitted by Demianus Mazau, a prospective member of the Intan Jaya Regency DPRD from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) number 1.

The trial with case number 163-02-03-36/PHPU.DPR-DPRD-XXII/2024 was held on Monday (06/05/2024) morning in Panel Session Room 3 with the Panel of Judges of the Constitutional Justice Arief Hidayat accompanied by Constitutional Justice Anwar Usman and Constitutional Justice Enny Nurbaningsih.

In this trial, the Respondent provided an explanation regarding the Petitioner's request which had previously argued that individuals from the District Election Committee (PPD) and the Regional General Election Commission (KPUD) of Intan Jaya Regency had transferred votes without the knowledge of the public or the Legislative Candidates whose names received valid votes. In addition to questioning the difference in votes, the Petitioner also argued that the election implementation process did not reflect the principles of direct, general, free, and secret (luber jurdil) as mandated by statutory regulations.

The Constitutional Court is Not Authorized, the Petitioner's Application is Defective and Demianus's Votes are Zero

Josua Viktor, as the Respondent's legal counsel, provided an answer stating that the Constitutional Court does not have the authority to examine and adjudicate the Petitioner's application because the Petitioner on pages 4 to 9 of his application questioned the process of implementing the general election, and the authority to examine the election process lies with Bawaslu.

Viktor further said that the Petitioner's application did not include the approval of the General Chairperson and Secretary General of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle as a condition for submitting an Individual PHPU application. Thus, the Petitioner's application is unfounded as stipulated in Constitutional Court Regulation Number 2 of 2023 concerning Procedures in Cases of Disputes over General Election Results for Members of the House of Representatives and Regional House of Representatives.

“That in the Application, the Applicant does not include a recommendation from the Party, so he does not have legal standing,” said Josua

According to the KPU, the petitioner's argument that there was a transfer of votes allegedly transferred by the District Election Committee (PPD) and the KPU of Intan Jaya Regency is not true. According to the KPU, the votes obtained by Demianus Mazau, a candidate for the Regional People's Representative Council of Intan Jaya Regency Number 1 of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP-Perjuangan) 3, were not 3,879 votes, but zero.

Bawaslu Denies Petitioner's Claims

Bawaslu, in its statement, explained that there were three follow-up reports and findings related to the subject matter of this application. One of the recommendations of the Intan Jaya Regency Bawaslu Number: 083/Rekom.01.01/K.PT/08/111/2024 has been followed up with the issuance of Minutes Number: 230/PL.01.8-BA/9407/2024 concerning Receipt of Recapitulation Results of Vote Count Model C-Results dated March 1, 2024 from the KPU of Intan Jaya Regency.

The minutes essentially explain that the Model C-Results form and its copies were not received when the District Election Committee submitted the recapitulation of the vote count results to the KPU of Intan Jaya Regency. Therefore, after the KPU of Intan Jaya Regency followed up on the recommendation, the Bawaslu of Intan Jaya Regency issued a cancellation of the Recommendation based on Recommendation Letter Number: 085/Rekom.01.01/K.PT/081111/2024, dated March 5, 2024, concerning the Cancellation of the Recommendation Letter.

Furthermore, the results of Bawaslu's supervision of Intan Jaya Regency, which was carried out based on a comparison of C-Results of the Sub-district/District and D.Results of Intan Jaya Regency in the name of Demianus Mazau nominated by PDIP, showed that the vote acquisition at TPS 01 Mutadipa, TPS 02 Sulitapa, TPS 03 Bobindigi, TPS 04 Donetagipa, TPS 05 Dugimba, TPS 06 Bajemba, TPS 07 Mbalame, TPS 08 -, TPS 09 Donembalogo, and TPS 10 Giginesiga were all zero.

“The results of Bawaslu's supervision were carried out based on a comparison of C-Results of the Sub-district/District and D.Results of Intan Jaya Regency, for the Petitioner to get zero votes at TPS 01 Mutadipa, TPS 02 Sulitapa, TPS 03 Bobindigi, TPS 04 Donetagipa, TPS 05 Dugimba, TPS 06 Bajemba, TPS 07 Mbalame, TPS 08 -, TPS 09 Donembalogo, and TPS 10,” said Yonas Yanampa.

Regarding the Petitioner's argument related to the dismissal of 38 PPK/PPD, Bawaslu explained that the KPU of Intan Jaya Regency temporarily dismissed 8 (eight) Chairpersons and 30 (thirty) PPD Members for not attending the plenary meeting without a clear reason.