Found Voters Using Other People's Data, Constitutional Court Orders Revoting 16 Polling Stations At South Labuhanbatu North Sumatra

JAKARTA - The Constitutional Court (MK) ordered the General Election Commission (KPU) of South Labuhanbatu Regency, North Sumatra to re-vote at 16 polling stations (TPS). The reason is that there were violations in the 2020 regional elections.

"There has been a violation in the holding of the Regent and Deputy Regent elections of South Labuhanbatu Regency at 16 polling stations, so it is necessary to re-vote," said Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court, Anwar Usman, as quoted by Antara, Monday, March 22.

The re-voting must be carried out within 30 working days of the pronouncement of the Constitutional Court decision by the Panel of Judges.

The results of the re-votes were determined after they were combined with the vote acquisition that was not canceled based on the decree of the South Labuhanbatu Regency KPU number 425/PL.02.6-Kpt/1222/KPU-Kab/XII/2020 concerning the recapitulation of vote count results and the results of the Regent election and Deputy Regent of South Labuhanbatu 2020.

The 16 Polling Stations (TPS) that were ordered to re-vote were Polling Station 005, Polling Station 006, Polling Station 007, Polling Station 008, Polling Station 009, Polling Station 010, Polling Station 011, Polling Station 012, Polling Station 013, Polling Station 014, Polling Station 018 Toganda Village. Furthermore, Polling Station 005 Aek Raso Village, Polling Station 001, Polling Station 003, Polling Station 005, and Polling Station 006 Tanjung Selatan Village, Kampung Rakyat District.

At the trial of the dispute over the election results, two exceptions were stated, namely, the defendant and parties related to the authority of the Constitutional Court, the petition was unclear and the application for the wrong object was groundless according to law.

Second, stating that the Constitutional Court has the authority to try a quo petition, the petition is still within the deadline for the application and the applicant has the position to submit a quo petition.

In the main matter of the case, the constitutional judge granted the petitioner's petition partially and declared null and void the decision letter of the South Labuhanbatu Regency's General Election Commission (KPU) number 425/PL.02.6-Kpt/1222/KPU-Kab/XII/2020 dated December 16, 2020.

During the course of the trial, the Constitutional Court Panel of Judges found a number of legal facts as follows, among which the petitioner argued that someone using the Model C Notification-KWK form belonging to Toloni Waruwu who was serving a prison sentence at the Gunung Tua Class III Penitentiary. However, the person concerned exercised his voting rights at Polling Station 009 Torganda Village, Torgamba District.

The finding of the use of Toloni's Model C Notification-KWK form has been followed up by the local Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) as a finding of a violation of the election organizer's code of ethics (Chairperson and members of the Voting Organizer Group of Polling Station 009 Torganda Village) which was then forwarded to the General Election Commission of South Labuanbatu Regency for processing.

Thus, the legal facts were obtained that all voters in the Final Voter List at Polling Station 009 Torganda Village had exercised their voting rights including on behalf of Toloni Waruwu who was still serving a criminal sentence at Gunung Tua Prison but his voting rights were used by other people.

Therefore, the purity of the votes acquired at the Polling Stations (TPS) was violated and the organizers proved a violation of the code of ethics. Not only that, the organizers, especially the Voting Organizer Group at Polling Station 009, have also been subjected to written warning sanctions.