The General Election Commssion Defends Mahyeldi, West Sumatra Governor Election Winner, Affirms No Violation Of Campaign Fund Donations

PADANG - The attorney for the West Sumatra General Election Commission has denied that the candidate pair for Governor of West Sumatra, Mahyeldi-Audy Joinaldy, committed violations of individual campaign fund donations, as submitted by the legal team for candidate pair Nasrul Abit-Indra Catri.

"Based on the results of the audit from the Mahyeldi-Audy campaign fund reporting public accounting firm, irregularities were not found and they were in accordance with the applicable criteria as the campaign fund donation regulations", said West Sumatra General Election Commission attorney, Sudi Prayitno at the continued trial of the 2020 simultaneous regional election results dispute at the Constitutional Court, Monday, February 1.

According to him, the campaign funds for the Mahyeldi-Audy pair as questioned by the Nasrul Abit-Indra Catri Team are also not related to regulations by the General Election Commission which have implications for the cancellation of candidate pairs.

Then related to the alleged administrative violation at the polling station in Pariaman Hospital, he stated that until now, The General Election Supervisory Agency had never declared it a violation of election administration.

Because of that, the defendant's attorney asked the Constitutional Court to determine the results of the recapitulation of votes already determined by the West Sumatra General Election Commission as applicable.

As reported previously, the candidate pair for the Governor of West Sumatra, Nasrul Abit-Indra Catri, asked the West Sumatra General Election Commission to annul the vote acquisition of the Mahyeldi-Audy Joinaldy pair to zero on their petition for a lawsuit on General Election Result Dispute at the Constitutional Court.

"We ask the General Election Commission to disqualify the Mahyeldi-Audy Joinaldy pair because they have violated the provisions regarding campaign funds", said Nasrul Abit-Indra Catri's Attorney, Vino Oktavia, at the hearing on the Disputes Over General Election Results petition.

According to him, the Mahyeldi-Audy Joinaldy pair had received campaign donations from the state civil apparatus in the form of a house that was used as a winning post with a value of IDR 100 million.

"This exceeds the limit for individual campaign fund donations which are only IDR 75 million and donations in kind are not reported to the West Sumatra General Election Commission so that pair number four must be annulled", he said.

On the other hand, the attorney found a number of violations in the implementation of the governor election by the West Sumatra General Election Commission, namely in Pariaman the Voting Organizing Group did not vote in the regional public hospitals so that 28 voters' rights were lost.

Then in Sawahlunto, there was a ballot using a pen, in Padang, the Voting Organizing Group gave three ballots to a voter at Voting Post number 02 Padang Pasir.

According to him, there was a violation of the submission of the recapitulation of the election results without a sealed ballot box by the Solok Selatan General Election Commission, Solok City, Padang Pariaman to the provincial General Election Commission.

"Therefore, we assess the results of the recapitulation of the West Sumatra governor election results set by the West Sumatra General Election Commission to be legally flawed", he said.

According to Nasrul Abit-Indra Catri's attorney, the correct vote count was the pair Mulyadi-Ali Mukhni with 614,447 votes, Nasrul Abit-Indra Catri 670,969 votes, Fakhrizal-Genius Umar 220,893 votes, and Mahyeldi-Audy Joinaldy zero.

Meanwhile, the West Sumatra General Election Commission determined the pair number 4 Mahyeldi - Audy Joinaldy to win the most votes in the West Sumatra Pilgub with 726,853 votes or 32.43 percent.

The second place was Nasrul Abit-Indra Catri with 679,069 votes or 30.30 percent. Then the Mulyadi-Ali Mukhni pair had 614,477 votes or 27.42 percent. Meanwhile, the Fakhrizal-Genius Umar pair received 9.86 percent or 220,893 votes.

West Sumatra General Election Commission recorded a total of 2,313,278 voters or 61.68 percent. The total number of valid votes was 2,241,292 or 96.89 percent and the number of invalid votes was 71,986 or 3.11 percent.