KPU Sumut commissioner Mulia Banurea confirmed the council’s ruling. “All [seven KPU Sumut commissioners] were present when the ruling was read out in Jakarta,” Mulia saidon Thursday.

The DKPP also issued a harsh warning to six KPU Sumut commissioners and three commissioners of the regional KPU for West Nias regency, North Sumatra.

The ethics review followed a report from Rambe Kamarul Zaman, a Golkar Party member who ran as a House of Representatives legislative candidate, on alleged vote rigging in West Nias.

The ruling is the latest to come from the DKPP since last week, when it ruled that two KPU commissioners, Ilham Saputra and Evi Novida Ginting Manik, had committed election violations.

Ilham had been alleged of obstructing Hanura Party candidates during the House legislative election.

Ilham recently responded with regard to his dismissal as the KPU’s technical and logistics head, saying that all KPU decisions were made collectively, but stressed that he respected the DKPP’s ruling.

He said he believed he had carried out his duties in accordance with the Constitution. “It was an evaluation [for us], for both the election agency and [its] commissioners,” he said.

Evi had also been dismissed earlier as the KPU’s head of human resources, organization, education and training for alleged inconsistencies she made during the selection process of KPU East Kolaka members in Southeast Sulawesi.

No criminal charges have been brought against either Ilham or Evi.

The ethics review in Papua province, however, resulted in criminal charges for six commissioners.

Papua Police summoned on July 8 six regional KPU commissioners Theodorus Kossay, Diana Dorthea Simbiak, Zandra Mambrasar, Zufri Abubakar, Fransiskus Antonius Letsoin and Melkianus Kambu, who have been named as suspects of allegedly rigging the vote in favor of a particular legislative candidate.

The case came to light in mid-May, when Gerindra Party legislative candidate Ronald E. Engko reported alleged electoral fraud in the Jayapura vote count to the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu). Ronald’s lawyer, Yusman Conoras, said that Bawaslu Papua ruled on July 1 that the KPU commissioners had committed a violation when their carelessness resulted in two different versions of the vote tally for the provincial legislature.

Conoras said Ronald had won 13,106 votes according to the first version of the Jayapura vote tally, but that the second version showed he had won only 5,914 votes. Conoras said his client learned only later that there were two versions of the Jayapura tally.

“Yet, it was the second version that was used in the KPU Papua’s plenary session for the vote recapitulation,” Conoras said as quoted by jubi.co.id last week.

Upon the Bawaslu Papua’s ruling, Ronald reported the six commissioners to the police for electoral fraud.

KPU Papua chairman Theodorus Kossay denied any wrongdoing, as the change in the vote count was made at a lower administrative level and not by the provincial KPU.

He said the blame should instead have fallen on KPU Jayapura and the Heram District Election Committee (PPD).

He added that witnesses from the 16 contending political parties and 14 presidential election witnesses, as well as Bawaslu Papua representatives, were present during the recapitulation at KPU Papua.

Kossay expressed regret that Bawaslu Papua seemed to have washed their hands of the matter. “They witnessed and directly watched [the recapitulation],” he said, intimating that the agency seemed content for KPU Papua to carry the blame.

Bawaslu Papua member Amandus Situmorang said he was not authorized to comment on the case. (asp)

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