At the hearing, Election Organization Ethics Council (DKPP) chair Heddy Lugito said, “the decision is effective immediately and the President must follow it up no later than seven days after the ruling is read out”.

In a complaint filed by a member of The Hague Overseas Election Committee (PPLN) identified by her initials CAT, Hasyim allegedly misused his authority and state facilities as the poll body chairman to seduce the plaintiff.

The ethics ruling came just two days after the KPU altered the age requirements for candidates in the November regional elections, essentially opening the door for 29-year-old Kaesang Pangarep, the youngest son of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, to run for governor.

The updated version of the KPU regional election regulation says candidates for governor and deputy governor must be 30 years old by the time they are inaugurated on Jan. 1, 2025, rather than at the time their candidacy is made official in September. Hasyim at the time said the changes were made to honor the previous Supreme Court ruling that ordered election rules to be revised.

Kaesang does not turn 30 until December.

It was not the first time Hasyim was implicated in an ethics case.

On Feb. 5, Hasyim and six KPU commissioners were found guilty of an ethics breach for allowing vice president-elect Gibran Rakabuming Raka to register his candidacy before the poll agency had adjusted the age minimum for candidates in its internal regulation.

The DKPP slapped Hasyim with a “final stern warning” for his part in the case, while the six other KPU members received a “stern warning”. This is because Hasyim had previously received two other stern warnings from the DKPP because of ethics breaches in March and April last year.

Gibran and president-elect Prabowo Subianto won the three-horse race by a landslide in the following weeks, largely helped by a tacit endorsement from Gibran’s father, outgoing President Jokowi. (ipa/kuk)