JAKARTA, LEGAL LITERACY –The Constitutional Court (MK) held a follow-up hearing with the agenda of listening to the Respondent's answers, the Election Supervisory Body's (Bawaslu) statement, and the Relevant Party's statement for the General Election Result Dispute (PHPU) case for candidates for members of the Regional People's Representative Council (DPRK) submitted by H. Hasbi Ahmad, candidate for DPRK Aceh Utara Member in the Aceh Utara 5 Electoral District from the National Awakening Party (PKB).

The trial with case number 175-02-01-01/PHPU.DPR-DPRD-XXII/2024 was held in Panel 3 Hearing Room on Monday (07/05/2024) with the Panel of Judges consisting of 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 in the previous preliminary hearing argued that there was a difference in votes between the Petitioner's votes as determined by the Petitioner and the Petitioner's correct votes according to the Petitioner. The Petitioner explained that his vote acquisition in Lapang District should have been 184 votes, but the vote acquisition determined by the Respondent for the Petitioner's votes was only 54 votes. According to the Petitioner, the difference in votes was due to the addition of votes for Candidate Member of the Aceh Utara Regency People's Representative Council of the National Awakening Party (PKB) in the name of Muhammad Rizal, S.E. in Lapang District. The inflation of votes was due to an error in data input and the Respondent. This can be seen after comparing the C-Result (Plano), C-Result Copy, and D-Result documents.

In its response, the KPU stated that the Petitioner did not have the legal standing to file a petition because he did not obtain written approval from the general chairman and secretary general or other designations from the Local Political Party concerned and stated in his petition.

“The Petitioner did not attach a letter of approval. Thus, there is sufficient reason for the Constitutional Court to decide that the Petitioner does not have the legal standing to file a petition a quo,” said Zanna Zerlina as the Respondent's legal counsel.

Furthermore, the KPU stated that the reduction in the Petitioner's vote acquisition in Lapang District by 130 votes was incorrect because based on Form Model D Result-DPRK-Kab/Ko, the Petitioner's vote acquisition in Lapang District, Aceh Utara Regency, Dapil 5 was 54 votes. The KPU also explained that the addition of votes in the name of Muhammad Rizal, S.E., in Lapang District by 193 votes was incorrect because based on Form Model D Result-DPRK-Kab/Ko, Muhammad Rizal, S.E.'s vote acquisition in Lapang District, Aceh Utara Regency was 1,500 votes.