The panel of justices at the Constitutional Court grilled on Tuesday members of the General Elections Commission (KPU) about why they insisted on wrapping up the national vote tally on July 22 despite a demand from the camp of the losing Prabowo Subianto-Hatta Rajasa presidential ticket to postpone the process.

The inquiries were prompted by complaints from Prabowo'€™s legal team, which accused the KPU of rushing the national vote count in spite of reports of massive and systemic fraud.

'€œWe filed a letter with the KPU to postpone [the process], but it was ignored,'€ said National Mandate Party (PAN) deputy secretary-general Azis Subekti, who was also a witness for the Prabowo team during the national vote tally at the KPU headquarters on July 22.

'€œThey argued that they had to meet the [July 22] deadline as had been stipulated in the KPU'€™s regulation,'€ Azis said.

Azis said that the KPU could have easily changed the regulation, as the presidential election law stated that the KPU must announce the election result in no more than 30 days after the balloting day, which meant the commission actually had until Aug. 9 to finish the process.

Responding to the complaint, court justice Patrialis Akbar then sought clarification from KPU commissioner Ida Budhiati.

Ida said that the KPU decided to wrap up the national vote tallying process on July 22 after securing approval from political parties that contested the 2014 legislative election, as well as the House of Representatives, the government and members of the public.

'€œDuring our consultation process with all stakeholders, there were no complaints about the deadline that we set. Also, when we consulted with the House and the government, there was no objection,'€ he said.

The panel of justices also asked whether the KPU issued a new regulation to justify its move to announce the national vote tally result on July 22, a question that the KPU would have to answer in a court session on Wednesday.

Speaking after the hearing, Ida said that the KPU decided to set the July 22 deadline because the tallying process for the presidential election was much simpler than that of the legislative election.

'€œThere were more things that we had to manage in the legislative election,'€ she told reporters. '€œWe also had to measure how much time was needed at each recapitulation stage, from the polling-station level to the national level. So this was related only to the time-management aspect at the regional level.'€

Ida said that the KPU decided to ignore the Prabowo camp'€™s request after getting no complaints from the ticket'€™s witnesses at the regional level.

'€œSuddenly the problems emerged at the national level,'€ she said.

Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem) executive director Titi Anggraini said that the Prabowo camp should have made its demand for the extension of the July 22 deadline long before it expired.

'€œIf they felt that 14 days wasn'€™t enough, then they could have filed a request long before [the deadline] expired,'€ she said on Tuesday.

Titi said that the KPU did not breach any regulations by sticking to the July 22 deadline.

'€œWhat'€™s important is for the regulation to be made after consulting with the election participants and that the public is aware of that,'€ she said.

During Tuesday'€™s hearing, the Prabowo legal team proceeded with its claim of '€œmassive and systemic'€ fraud in the presidential election as it presented witnesses from Papua, North Sumatra, South Sulawesi, North Sulawesi, Central Kalimantan and South Tangerang.

The coordinator of Prabowo'€™s election witnesses in Papua, Dedi Waluyo, said that no balloting had taken place in two districts of Paniai regency.

'€œBut when the vote was tallied at the provincial level, the results were available,'€ he said.

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