T

he Constitutional Court annulled on Thursday the decision by the local elections commission in South Sumatra naming incumbent Governor Alex Noerdin the winner in the provincial election, and ordered a revote.

The court found that Alex had misused the provincial budget to secure his victory in four municipalities and regencies and one subdistrict and ordered repeat polling in those areas.

In mid-June, the South Sumatra General Elections Commission (KPUD) announced that Alex '€” who lost his bid in the Jakarta gubernatorial election last year to Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo '€” and Ishak Mekki were elected governor and deputy governor for 2013-2018.

Alex and Ishak garnered 1,405,510 votes or 36.02 percent, followed by Herman Deru and Maphilinda with 1,258,240 votes or 32.25 percent from a total of 15 regencies and municipalities. Finishing third, Eddy Santana and Annisa Juwita obtained 695,667 votes or 17.83 percent, while the pairing of Iskandar and Hafisz came in last with 400,321 votes or 10.26 percent.

The South Sumatra KPUD announced that from a total of 5,820,453 registered voters across 15 regencies and municipalities, 3,901,334 voters had cast their ballots in the election, in which more than 141,596 were deemed invalid.

The court instructed the South Sumatra KPUD to hold repeat ballots in East Ogan Komering Ulu regency; Ogan Komering Ulu regency; South Ogan Komering Ulu regency; Palembang municipality, and South Warkuk Ranau district in South Ogan Komering Ulu within 90 days of the ruling.

The Constitutional Court said Alex had channeled Rp 1.4 trillion (US$140 million) of provincial social aid funding to buy votes through a number of social organizations in the province. '€œAlex has been found guilty of channeling the province'€™s budget funds in a structured, systematic and extensive manner to win the election,'€ Justice Ahmad Fadlil Sumadi said as he read out the court'€™s verdict on Thursday.

The panel of nine justices considered Alex'€™s actions part of a covert campaign that violated the principles of a free and fair election.

The Rp 1.4 trillion was used to purchase 1,500 motorcycles in East Ogan Komering Ulu regeny, Ogan Komering Ulu regency and Palembang municipality, as well as funding the distribution of basic supplies in Palembang municipality.

South Sumatra KPUD chairwoman Anisatul Mardiyah said the commission would implement the court'€™s decision before the 90-day deadline.

'€œWe will probably hold the new ballot after Idul Fitri as we need to prepare a lot of things,'€ she said after the hearing.

Alex, a politician with the Golkar Party, has also been implicated in a massive graft case centering on the construction of the athletes'€™ village at the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Palembang, South Sumatra.