The General Elections Commission (KPU) defended its work in organizing the 2024 presidential election at a Constitutional Court hearing on Thursday on electoral complaints brought forward by candidates Anies Baswedan and Ganjar Pranowo, as the plaintiffs’ legal teams prepare to present witnesses early next week.

Anies and Ganjar filed separate petitions challenging the KPU’s official election results and its certification of a landslide victory for the Prabowo Subianto-Gibran Rakabuming Raka ticket.

Both camps are seeking a revote with the Prabowo-Gibran ticket excluded, and Anies’ team is also offering an alternative demand that Gibran alone, the eldest son of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, be disqualified.

Ganjar’s team alleged that President Jokowi had undertaken a “coordinated abuse of power” to help the Prabowo-Gibran pair win the election.

Anies and his running mate Muhaimin Iskandar, meanwhile, alleged state interference and large-scale electoral fraud, including through the Tabulation Information System (Sirekap) operated by the KPU.

They claimed the platform, which was intended to allow the public to monitor the vote count, was manipulated through a digital back door, resulting in an inflated number of votes for Prabowo and Gibran.

During the vote tabulation period, Sirekap was widely criticized for apparent errors that altered the number of votes recorded for certain candidates. Amid the criticism, the poll body stopped presenting the preliminary results, leaving the website with only photographs of manual vote tabulation forms.

Popular

Furniture exporters decry new quarantine rule

BRICS shows internal rifts as ministers fall short of joint statement

EV industry urges govt to reinstate two-wheeler subsidies as market slows