Yusril Disappointed That MA Cancels General Election Commissions' Decision On Disqualification Of Bandar Lampung Election Winner, Exposes Judges' Mistakes

JAKARTA - Yusril Ihza Mahendra is disappointed with the Supreme Court's decision for canceling the General Election Commissions' (KPU) decision for disqualifying candidate pair number 3 Eva Dwiana-Deddy Amrullah. Eva-Deddy is the candidate pair with the most votes in the Bandar Lampung regional election.

"We consider the Supreme Court's decision to be full of irregularities and oddities", Yusril Ihza Mahendra told VOI, Thursday, January 28.

Yusril, who was part of the reporting team's attorney, Yopi Hendro, explained the reasons for the irregularities in the Supreme Court's decision from both formal and material aspects.

"The Supreme Court's decision on this case is a court examination at the cassation level because the provisions of Article 135A paragraph (9) of Law No.10 of 2016 state that the Supreme Court's decision is final and binding. Because of this examination at the level of cassation, the Supreme Court should not examine the aspects of facts (judex facti), but rather examine aspects of the application of law (judex juris). However, in his consideration, he actually examines and assesses the evidence of the case", said Yusril.

According to Yusril, the Supreme Court did not accept intervention from the reporting party in the process of handling the lawsuit. The rejection of the Supreme Court was conveyed by the Young Clerk of the TUN MA on January 18, 2021.

"This means that the Supreme Court violates the principle of justice which is obliged to hear statements from the parties in a fair and balanced manner before making a decision", said Yusril.

Meanwhile, from the material aspect, Yusril said that there was a real mistake by the judge in deciding this case.

Among these mistakes, the Supreme Court considered that the Bandar Lampung KPU had violated its authority from the point of view of time in the stages, programs and election schedule stipulated in Article 5 of Law 1/2015 in conjunction with PKPU No. 5/2020.

Even though the implementation of the Bawaslu's decision by the KPU, Yusril continued, a law order through article 135A paragraph (4) in which the Provincial/Regency KPU is obliged to follow up the Provincial Bawaslu's decision no later than 3 (three) days. Because of that, Yusril emphasized that there was no more legal choice for the KPU other than following up on the Bawaslu disqualification decision.

"Second, there was a real mistake by the Judge because the panel had wrongly assessed the facts, namely that the distribution of COVID-19 did not necessarily benefit the candidate pair 03 (Eva Dwiana). Whereas each division is clearly proven to have a message inserted to choose candidate pair number 03", said Yusril.

In addition, the judge called Yusril to contain assumptive considerations by stating that the candidate pair number 02 with the status of the incumbent (deputy mayor) should be the party benefiting from the assistance.

"The Panel of Judges closed their eyes on the influence of TSM (structured, systematic, massive) violations on candidate pair number 03", explained Yusril.

For these reasons, Yusril and the reporting team of attorneys will study the possibility of submitting a PK against the Supreme Court's decision.