J

AKARTA: The legal team for the Gerindra Party'€™s presidential candidate, Prabowo Subianto, reported the General Elections Commission (KPU) to the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) on Thursday for the alleged unlawful opening of ballot boxes.

Advocate team member Sahroni said that the KPU was attempting to tamper with the evidence that was due to be presented to the Constitutional Court by instructing all regional General Elections Commission (KPUD) to open their ballot boxes.

According to Sahroni, the ballot boxes should not have been opened before the first trial session of the election dispute, which was filed by Prabowo'€™s camp on July 6, but the instruction to open ballot boxes was made after the announcement of the official vote count on July 22.

'€œThe presidential election process had concluded on July 22 with the announcement of the vote tally results by the KPU, which means that all ballot boxes should remain sealed unless the court decided otherwise,'€ he said.

The KPU instructed all KPUD across on July 25 to open all ballot boxes and look for the A5 forms, needed for eligible voters to vote in locations different from where they supposed to vote, as evidence to be presented at the court.

So far, four KPUD '€” Central Jakarta, South Jakarta, Malang and Riau Islands '€” opened their ballot boxes following the instruction by the KPU, Sahroni said. The KPU'€™s instruction indicated that it did not trust its own evidence, said Sahroni.

KPU commissioner Ferry Kurnia Rizkiyansyah said that the instruction was needed to strengthen evidence in response to the lawsuit filed by Prabowo'€™s camp.