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KPU stands ground on special voter lists
Five wise men: Representatives of five religions wait to administer the oaths of witnesses according to their religious faith at the Constitutional Court in Jakarta on Monday
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span class="caption">Five wise men: Representatives of five religions wait to administer the oaths of witnesses according to their religious faith at the Constitutional Court in Jakarta on Monday. The court is currently handling Prabowo Subianto's lawsuit over his defeat in the July 9 presidential elections. JP/Awo
The General Elections Commission (KPU) appeared strong during a hearing at the Constitutional Court on Monday, with witnesses from Regional General Elections Commissions (KPUDs) giving their assurances that no fraudulent voter mobilization occurred during the July 9 presidential election, as has been alleged by the camp of the losing Prabowo Subianto'Hatta Rajasa presidential ticket.
In its lawsuit to annul the presidential election result, the Prabowo side claimed that there had been 'massive and systemic' violations in the form of a mass mobilization of voters who cast ballots using other people's names, via the misuse of additional special voter lists (DPKTb), in provinces such as West Sumatra, Lampung, Jakarta and East Java.
Totok Haryono, a Malang KPUD member, said that based on the recommendation of the East Java Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu), the commission had rechecked the vote result and found no irregularities.
'Based on the recheck, there were no individuals registered at more than one polling station,' he said before chief justice Hamdan Zoelfa.
In Malang, 1.98 million citizens registered on the final voter list (DPT) participated in the presidential election, as well as 16,830 citizens who cast their votes outside their residential area, whose names were listed on the DPKTb.
Totok added that he had found that no attempts of voter mobilization occurred in the regency.
Another witness, Jember KPUD member Mohammad Syai'in, said that based on assessments at polling stations and district polling committees, there had been no election violations committed by any of the 13,068 voters listed on the DPKTb.
'Right up until the preliminary meeting, we did not find that any individual exercised their voting right repeatedly,' he said.
Unlike the previous court hearing on Friday that was filled with obscure testimony from witnesses of the Prabowo camp, most of the KPU's 25 witnesses were able to present clear testimony and evidence.
KPU lawyer Ali Nurdin questioned the objections from the Prabowo camp about the significant number of voters listed on the DPKTb.
'The DPKTb aim to protect the constitutional rights of citizens to participate in the election ['¦] In Central and East Java, there were only three DPKTb voters listed at each polling station, on average,' Ali said on the sidelines of the court hearing.
'And please note that in provinces where presidential ticket number one [Prabowo-Hatta] gained victory, the rate of DPKTb voters was quite high, such as in West Java,' he added.
Separately, KPU chief Husni Kamil Manik filed a police report early on Monday against Muhammad Taufik, the head of the Jakarta chapter of Prabowo's Gerindra Party, for threatening to arrest him during a protest in front of the court complex on Friday.
Taufik, who has previously been sentenced by the Central Jakarta Court to 18 months in prison for graft, reportedly threatened to deploy tens of thousands of Prabowo supporters to arrest Husni for committing election fraud.
Husni accused Taufik of violating Article 336 on the Criminal Code on threats of violence.
'The threat distressed KPU commissioners at a time when we are facing this legal battle,' KPU commissioner Arief Budiman said.
Arief shrugged off rumors that Husni's absence at the court hearing was related to Taufik's threat.
'He represented the KPU in the hearing at the Election Organization Ethics Council [DKPP],' he said, referring to a hearing regarding a report that was filed by Prabowo's camp on alleged ethics violations committed by the KPU and Bawaslu.
Prabowo camp lawyer Habiburokhman said that some media outlets had misinterpreted Taufik's remarks.
'Taufik only urged law enforcers to arrest Husni. He did not mean to take the law into his own hands. Tonight, I will file police reports against several media outlets for publishing slanderous reports and [against] Husni for making a false report,' he said.
Meanwhile, Central Jakarta KPUD member Wahyu Dinata admitted that some polling stations did not complete proper documentation of their DPKTb data. As many as 26,370 DPKTb voters nationwide cast their votes on election day.
Wahyu, however, noted that the issue had been settled through revotes at the polling stations in question.
'Following recommendations from the provincial Bawaslu, we conducted revotes, such as at Bendungan Hilir polling stations 3 and 5, and Cideng polling station 3. During the revote, we saw a decline in voter participation,' he said.
To ensure the safety of KPU members, the Jakarta Police have deployed four officers to protect Husni as well as two officers for each KPU commissioner. Similar security measures have also been implemented for all DKPP members and for Constitutional Court justices until the court delivers its verdict on the election dispute.
