The Constitutional Court Rejects The 'Fry' PAN Candidate Lawsuit With Crazy Rich Tom Liwafa

JAKARTA - The Constitutional Court (MK) stated that it did not accept the lawsuit or application for the 2024 Legislative Election PHPU submitted by the legislative candidate and also the incumbent of the National Mandate Party (PAN), Sungkono, who questioned the vote acquisition of his party colleague, Afrizal Tom Liwafa.

The application is registered with Number 197-02-12-15/PHPU.DPR-DPRD-XXII/2024. Valid as the applicant is Sungkono and as the respondent is the KPU.

"Declare that the Petitioner's application is unacceptable," said Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court Suhartoyo in a plenary session at the Constitutional Court building, Jakarta, as reported by ANTARA, Wednesday, May 22.

In the Constitutional Court's explanation, Constitutional Justice Arsul Sani said after the Constitutional Court observed Sungkono's petition, the legislative candidate did not attach a party DPP approval letter during the submission of the application to the revision of the application.

"Especially in the preliminary trial process, the Petitioner through his attorney stated that it is true that the Petitioner did not get a letter of approval from the Party's DPP, in this case from the National Mandate Party," he said.

Based on this fact, he continued, the Constitutional Court assessed that Sungkono did not comply with the provisions of Article 8 paragraph (3) of the Constitutional Court Regulation (PMK) Number 2 of 2023 concerning the requirements for submitting individual PHPU case applications.

"Therefore, the Petitioner does not have the legal position to submit the application in question," he said. In addition, he continued, the Constitutional Court argued that the KPU's exception, which basically stated that Sungkono did not have the legal standing to file an application, was reasoned according to the law and the exception was granted as long as it was legal.

It is known, in his petition, Sungkono sued the KPU's determination of the vote count results which stated that Afrizal Tom Liwafa's voice was more than his.

According to Sungkono, the calculation was wrong because he suspected that there was a transfer of votes.

On that basis, Sungkono in his petitum asked the Constitutional Court to cancel KPU Decree Number 360 of 2024 at the East Java electoral district 1 PAN. Then, determining the correct vote acquisition in the East Java electoral district 1 PAN was Sungkono with 66,347 votes and Afrizal Tom Liwafa with 65,509 votes.