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ormer Constitutional Court chief justice Mahfud MD filed on Friday a defamation report with the National Police over allegations that he conspired with Banten Governor Ratu Atut Chosiyah to rig the 2011 Banten election.

Mahfud reported Ahmad Jazuli Abdillah, spokesman for Banten gubernatorial election candidate pair Wahidin Halim and Irna Narulita, to the National Police for his claim that Mahfud and Atut met a day before the court issued a ruling on Wahidin'€™s lawsuit challenging the victory by Atut and her deputy, Rano Karno.

'€œ[Ahmad] linked me with Atut by saying that we met to discuss her case. That'€™s a lie because on Nov. 22, 2011, [the court] had already delivered the verdict,'€ Mahfud said as quoted by tempo.co. '€œIf on that day we already had a verdict, then the decision would have been locked three days before that, after which time we couldn'€™t talk about it with other people.'€

Atut and Rano won the election by securing 49.64 percent of the vote, while Wahidin and Irna trailed in second place with 38.93 percent.

The Constitutional Court argued that the plaintiffs had aimed at the wrong target in their appeal by disputing the General Elections Commission'€™s (KPU) ruling determining gubernatorial and deputy gubernatorial candidates rather than the KPU'€™s ruling on the recapitulation of the Banten gubernatorial election.

Mahfud also said that Wahidin and Irna could not prove their allegations that Atut and Rano had marked up votes.

He added that the plaintiffs also could not prove their allegations that Atut and Rano had given money to a member of the KPU.

Ahmad accused Mahfud of meeting Atut during the final match of the 2011 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Cup at Bung Karno Stadium in Central Jakarta on Nov. 21.

According to him, Mahfud deliberately met with Atut so that the court could deliver a ruling in her favor.

Mahfud admitted that he met Atut during the soccer match, but denied that the meeting was planned. He claimed he was at the match at the invitation of the Youth and Sports Ministry.

Once he arrived, Mahfud went on, '€œI saw Atut sitting in front, while I sat near the back because I was late.'€

Besides seeing Atut, Mahfud said he also met former youth and sports minister Andi Mallarangeng, House of Representatives Speaker Marzuki Alie and Coordinating People'€™s Welfare Minister Agung Laksono.

'€œI didn'€™t speak at all with Atut. She went home; I was just like this [waving to everyone]. And that was in front of thousands of people. There'€™s no way [I could have] talked about a case,'€ he said.

This is not the first time Mahfud has been accused of corruption.