The Chairperson Of The PPK In Tanjungpinang 'Disappears', Reportedly Allegedly Inflating Candidates' Voices

TanjungPINANG - Bawaslu Tanjungpinang City, Riau Islands Province (Kepri) handled a report on the alleged inflation of votes for the 2024 legislative candidate (Caleg) which was allegedly carried out by the Chairman of the Bukit Bestari District Election Committee (PPK).

The report was officially submitted by the Regional Leadership Council (DPD) I of the Golkar Party (Golkar) on Friday, March 1.

"We have received the report. It is being followed up," said Tanjungpinang City Bawaslu Chairman Muhammad Yusuf, quoted by ANTARA, Monday, March 4.

Yusuf said Bawaslu together with the police and prosecutors who are members of the Tanjungpinang City Integrated Law Enforcement Center (Gakkumdu) were conducting an initial study to determine whether the report could be forwarded to the investigation level or not.

"We have seven working days to decide whether the status of the report is continued or not," he said.

In addition, Yusuf continued, his party is also tracking down the whereabouts of the Head of the Bukit Bestari PPK because his whereabouts are not known since the plenary meeting for the recapitulation of votes at the Bukit Bestari District level on February 24, 2024.

Even the person concerned did not attend the Tanjungpinang City level vote recapitulation plenary meeting on March 2-3, 2024.

"We also need to clarify the alleged inflating of votes during the recapitulation of votes in Bukit Bestari District," said Yusuf.

Meanwhile, Deputy Chairperson of OKK DPD I Golkar Kepri Ade Angga confirmed that his party had made a report to Bawaslu Tanjungpinang regarding the alleged inflated votes of the DPRD candidates.

His party claims there are indications of inflating 210 votes from the legislative candidate to one of the political parties. The incident took place during a plenary meeting of the vote recapitulation at the Bukit Bestari District level.

"There is some evidence that has been prepared, including C1 from Golkar and three other parties, then C the results uploaded through the KPU sirekap application, and the recording of witnesses in the sub-district during recapitulation. All this evidence is different from D from the sub-district plenary results," said Ade Angga.

The chairman of the Tanjungpinang KPU Muhammad Faizal admitted that he had disabled the Chairman of the Bukit Bestari PPK, because it was indicated that he had cheated on the election in the form of inflating the votes of the DPRD candidates.

The Tanjungpinang KPU will enforce the code of ethics against the person concerned if he is proven to have committed an act of violating the election.

"We have tried to call the person concerned for questioning, but it is difficult to contact and do not know his whereabouts at all," said Faizal.