Many Are Intimidated, Anies-Muhaimin's Team Asks Their Witnesses To Be Protected By LPSK

JAKARTA - The head of the Anies-Muhaimin National Law Team (THN) admitted that his party would ask the Witness and Victim Protection Agency (LPSK) to protect the witnesses of candidate pair 01.

The witness protection, which will provide information in the 2024 presidential election dispute trial, is expected to run during the trial.

"Later we will try to apply for the protection of this witness to LPSK. Where are the things of the witnesses who are urgent, we will enter them into the protection of this witness," said Ari after the inaugural trial at the Constitutional Court, Central Jakarta, Thursday, March 27.

Ari admitted that many of his witnesses who oversee the voting and counting of votes at the polling station have now resigned. The reason they withdrew from that position, called Ari, was due to intimidation.

"Of our many witnesses, many have resigned. Especially in Central Java and East Java. They have experienced intimidation, criminalization, and that has happened. In fact, we can prove it. But thank God there are still those who have the courage and are ready to testify," said Ari.

On that basis, the Anies-Muhaimin team as the applicant asked the panel of judges not to mention the names or identities of the witnesses they will present in the next trial process.

"In the trial, we conveyed about the security and confidentiality of our witnesses. So, we ask that the names be entered later," he explained.

On the other hand, the Anies-Muhaimin team wanted to present the ministers of the Advanced Indonesia Cabinet to witness the trial. However, Ari realized that Anies Baswedan-Muhaimin Iskandar and his team did not have the power to ask President Joko Widodo's ministers to be witnesses in the election dispute trial.

Therefore, Anies-Muhaimin's team will ask the panel of judges to be able to present the officials submitted by the applicant as witnesses to provide information related to the subject matter of the case.

"In time we will submit to the constitutional assembly to present some of the officials we ask for later. But that is the decision at the assembly to accept or not, because we do not have the ability to present these ministers," said Ari.

According to Ari, the presence of ministers to testify is important to reveal facts about the alleged abuse of state institutions and their policies to the neutrality of the authorities to win candidate pair Prabowo Subianto-Gibran Rakabuming Raka.

"For example (the information from the Minister of Finance regarding the use of our state budget. The Minister of Social Affairs, the distribution of our social assistance. That is really very important so that the public knows and we can really understand it in its entirety so that what we said earlier about the betrayal of the Constitutional Court as the guardian of the constitution can give the fairest decision," said Ari.