JAKARTA, LEGAL LITERACY - The Constitutional Court of the Republic of Indonesia held a preliminary hearing on the General Election Result Dispute (PHPU) for the election of prospective members of the Intan Jaya Regency DPRD for Electoral District 1 on Monday (29/04/2024). In the hearing, which was presided over by Constitutional Justice Arief Hidayat, along with Constitutional Justice Panel Members Anwar Usman and Constitutional Justice Enny Nurbaningsih, the Constitutional Court examined the clarity of the petition submitted by the Garuda Party.

Allegations of Administrative Violations and Vote Theft

In his petition, which is registered under number 279-01-11-36/PHPU.DPR-DPRD-XXII/2024, the petitioner argued that there were administrative violations and vote theft during the legislative elections which took place on February 19, 2024. Abdul Haris, the petitioner's attorney, highlighted that the implementation of the election in Intan Jaya Regency used the noken system and there was unavailability of the C1 Plano form and polling equipment which should have been provided by the Intan Jaya Regency KPU and the District Election Committee.

Haris also stated that the document was instead found in the hands of the National Mandate Party, raising suspicions about manipulation of vote results. He added, "In Intan Jaya there are two districts, namely Sugapa and Hitadipa. Our party's votes are zero, even though in the field, our party has 4,666 votes."

KPU's Failure to Heed Bawaslu's Recommendations

The petitioner also highlighted that the Intan Jaya Regency KPU had ignored Bawaslu's recommendations and committed election violations by holding a regency-level plenary session without the presence of representatives from all districts, which is a violation of PKPU Number 10 of 2023. Haris added, "Regarding the results in the field, there is already a recommendation from the supervisors to carry out a recapitulation according to the field, but the Intan Jaya KPU respondent did not heed it."

Petitioner's Demands

In its petition, the Garuda Party asked the Constitutional Court to annul KPU Decree Number 360 of 2024 and determine the acquisition of votes according to the petitioner's claim, namely 4,666 votes. In addition, the petitioner also asked the Court to disqualify several prospective members of the Intan Jaya Regency DPRD for Electoral District 1 who allegedly committed criminal acts of coercion and/or kidnapping of the head of the Hitadipa District.

"We suspect that the disappearance of the head of the Hitadipa PPD was carried out by two legislative candidates from PAN, so we are asking that these legislative candidates be disqualified," said Abdul Haris.