Legislative Election Dispute Hearing, PPP Asks MK to Return Votes Taken by Garuda Party

"There is a difference of 193,088 votes or the equivalent of a percentage of 0.13 percent," said Dharma during the preliminary hearing on the dispute over the results of the general election (PHPU) for legislative members in Panel I which took place in MK, Jakarta, Monday (29/4/2024).

Also read: MK Begins Hearing Dispute on Legislative Election, Three Panel of Judges Prepared

Dharma stated that there is a discrepancy between PPP's vote tally and the vote tally that has been determined by the General Election Commission (KPU). Some discrepancies occurred in the electoral districts (dapil) of Banten I, Banten II, and Banten III. The reduction of PPP's votes which have been transferred to Garuda in those three dapils ranges from 5,000-8,150 votes per dapil.

A similar argument was expressed by the legal counsel of a certain political party (forbidding translation), for electoral districts in East Java I, IV, VI, and VIII. The legal counsel of the political party revealed during the hearing in Panel II, that there had been a transfer of votes from their party to Garuda, which amounted to around 1,000 to 4,000 votes.

The unauthorized transfer of PPP's votes to Garuda was said to have taken place during the multi-level vote recapitulation process and continued until the national-level recapitulation. PPP has filed an objection with the provincial Election Supervisory Body (Bawaslu), but has not yet received a response.

Therefore, the party (PPP) requested that the Constitutional Court cancel KPU Decision Number 360 of 2024 regarding the national election results as long as the election results for the electoral district are still in question. The KPU must determine the correct vote count in accordance with PPP's version by returning PPP's votes, which were improperly transferred to Garuda.

There was an unauthorized transfer of votes obtained by PPP to the Garuda Party. The transfer of votes was spread across 35 electoral districts in 19 provinces.

Based on the election results announced by the KPU, PPP obtained 5,878,777 or 3.87 percent of the valid national vote. Meanwhile, the vote count for Garuda was 406,883, equivalent to 0.27 percent of the valid national vote.

Arsul didn't decide

Unlike the presidential election dispute hearing, the legislative election dispute hearing involves nine constitutional judges. Anwar Usman, who was not involved in the presidential election dispute hearing, is now handling the legislative election dispute case.

Regarding Constitutional judge Arsul Sani, who previously was the Deputy Chairman of PPP, he still participated in handling the PHPU (dispute of election results) for legislative elections even though PPP was one of the petitioners. According to Deputy Chairman of MK Saldi Isra, Arsul still attended the trial of PPP's dispute case. However, Arsul will not use his authority to decide the application. Arsul will also not delve into cases involving PPP as petitioners or related parties.

Also read: Submitting Lawsuit to the Constitutional Court, PPP Refuses to Be Relegated from Senayan

"So, his position will follow the trial, but he will not decide on all cases involving the petitioner and related parties of PPP," said Saldi.

MK spokesman Fajar Laksono Soeroso stated that the decision-making in the judge's consultation meeting still involves all constitutional judges. The decision is not only made by the three constitutional judges who handle all cases in three different panels.

Apart from that, constitutional judge Anwar Usman was also not a judge in the trial involving the Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI). This is in accordance with the decision of the MK Honorary Council which prohibited the uncle of PSI General Chair Kaesang Pangarep from adjudicating election results disputes which had the potential to have a conflict of interest.