The other presidential candidates, Anies Baswedan and Ganjar Pranowo, argued that the February 14 election should be annulled and the results nullified due to problems with the nomination of the running mate, and that the Constitution On appeal to the court, it is precisely asking for a re-vote. of the winning candidate.
Such a request is unprecedented, with the same court and nine judges who bent election laws to recognize the election of President Jokowi Jokowi's son, Gibran Rakabumin Raka, 36, just six months ago. It is unlikely that they will respond. Widodo was chosen to run as Prabowo Subianto's running mate, even though he was under the legal minimum age of 40 at the time.
The court is currently hearing appeals from Mr. Anies and Mr. Ganjar, as well as dozens of political parties and individual candidates running in the parliamentary elections, and has a deadline of 4 days to announce all final and binding decisions. It falls on the 22nd of the month.
The General Election Commission (KPU) announced on March 20 that Prabowo, the current Minister of Defense, and Gibran, Mayor of Surakarta, Central Java, won the presidential election with 59% of the votes, making a run-off election impossible. declared. Former Jakarta governor Anies came in second with 25%, and former Central Java governor Ganjar came in third with 16%.
Separate appeals to the Constitutional Court will be the last legal avenue for Anies and Ganjar to challenge the results. The political tool of the House of Representatives using its investigative powers to investigate allegations of election fraud is losing momentum, with no party, not even those that supported Anies and Ganjar's tickets, taking the lead. .
In their appeal to the court, Mr. Anis and Mr. Ganjar argue that Mr. Gibran's nomination is problematic and ask that new elections be held without him. They point out that both the court and KPU members have already been found to have violated ethics in allowing Gibran to run. Despite this finding, their decision remained unchanged and members of both agencies were allowed to continue their work and administer and oversee the 2024 election.
every Thursday
In October, a week before presidential nominations closed, the court made an exception to the minimum age rule in response to a petition from a law student in Surakarta. The court ruled that anyone who has served as a local leader can run for president, meaning Gibran can also run. A week later, the KPU accepted the Prabowo-Gibran ticket on time, even though it had not yet received permission from the House of Representatives, the only body that can change the law. The House of Representatives only amended the law the following week.
Mr Ganjal also asked the court to investigate allegations of nepotism, which is a crime under the 1999 law.
Besides,
The court's chief judge in October was Anwar Usman, who is married to Jokowi's sister and is therefore Gibran's uncle. He was found to have violated ethics by bending the law to benefit his nephew and was removed from his post as chief justice, but allowed to continue serving on the court. He and five other judges received only verbal reprimands.
Even worse was the track record of KPU chairman Hashim Asiari, who has been disciplined five times since taking office in 2022, including three “final” warnings from the Ethics Council.
Anis and Gibran cited evidence of “massive, systematic and systemic” election fraud by the winning candidates, ranging from the use of money to buy votes to the repression of supporters during campaign campaigns. supported the request for a new vote. Fraud in the vote counting process.
None of these claims, even if some of them turn out to be true, would be enough to influence the outcome given the large difference in the winner's votes over the other two candidates.
Mr. Anis and Mr. Ganjar may be forced to fight a lonely battle as the parties that supported their ticket to the presidential election and supported their campaigns must think about their own political futures.
All of them have been invited by Mr. Prabowo to join his government in preparation for taking office in October. They must weigh between joining a coalition government for all the rewards, including access to power and funding, or being in the opposition for the next five years. Now that both have clearly lost the battle in the Constitutional Court and have little chance of winning, their interests are starting to diverge from those of the candidates they were supporting.
Even knowing that the chances of a re-vote are close to zero, Mr. Anies and Mr. Ganjar still hold the public accountable for the final outcome of an election whose integrity has been undermined by ethical scandals at the KPU and the Constitutional Court. May raise questions.
This could come back to haunt Mr. Prabowo and Mr. Gibran when they take power in October. But like all political scandals in this country, this one will soon be forgotten.
what we heard
Sources from Anis Baswedan's legal team said the legal advisory team has been strengthened by a combination of senior and junior lawyers, including former officials of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). One of the senior lawyers is former KPK leader Bambang Widjajanto.
The official said the lawsuit over the election results was aimed at disqualifying Prabowo-Gibran from participating in the election and demanding a new presidential election. The source added that efforts to stop Prabowo-Gibran were underway from the beginning. But despite the ethics violations in Gibran's registration process, election organizers continued to move forward, he said. “He can only obtain legal status if he participates in elections,” the official said.
According to the source, some of the evidence has been read out in public and in court, including the unfairness of election organizers, the deployment of state agency personnel, and the provision of social assistance before the vote. The official also said that apart from the larger goal of disqualifying Prabowo-Gibran, they also wanted to show the public that the pig-barrel political pattern of supporting voters through state institutions in elections should not be tolerated. Ta. “Please don't let this become a practice that continues from election to election,” the official said.
From Ganjar Pranowo's perspective, members of his campaign team said the lawsuit filed by the third-place candidate in the Constitutional Court is divided into three parts: registration, voting, vote counting and counting. . The official said Prabowo Gibran must have had problems registering with the General Elections Commission (KPU) as he still complied with the old KPU regulations that set the minimum age limit for candidates to be 40 years old. explained.
The deployment of officials and the distribution of social assistance took place in the run-up to the elections and before the voting process. “At the final stage, there were irregularities in the technical system during the summing up,” the official said.
Disclaimer
This content is provided in collaboration with Tenggara Strategics. jakarta post We provide the latest comprehensive and authoritative analysis of the political and business landscape in Indonesia. Visit the latest edition of Tenggar Backgrounder and read the articles listed below.
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