Bawaslu Admits That He Can't Determine Criminal Elements In The Case Of Profiting NIK Support For Dharma-Kun

Chairman of the DKI Jakarta General Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) Munandar Nugraha admitted that his party had not been able to find elements of criminal violations in the case of profiteering of the resident population identification number (NIK) as supporters of Dharma Pongrekun-Kun Wardana.

Dharma-Kun is the candidate pair for the Governor-Deputy Governor of DKI Jakarta for the individual route. Later, Dharma-Kun was protested by many people due to profiteering, NIK became its supporters to register with the KPU.

Munandar claimed to have processed incoming reports related to NIK profiteering. However, Bawaslu is still conducting a study on the alleged election violations committed by Dharma-Kun.

"So until now we ask for time to be able to ensure that both our studies and our internal meetings, to ensure that the formal and material verification has indeed been fulfilled," said Munandar at the DKI Jakarta KPU Office, Tuesday, August 20.

If there are criminal findings in the case of profiteering of the NIK, Bawaslu will delegate the handling of violations to the Integrated Law Enforcement Center (Sentra Gakkumdu) consisting of elements of Bawaslu, the police, and the prosecutor's office.

"So when the report comes in, we will follow up. What is the process like? That was what I said earlier. There was verification, formal, material, and then discussing with the Gakumdu Center on criminal allegations," said Munandar.

Although the handling of alleged violations at Bawaslu has not yet been completed, Dharma-Kun will still pass factual verification and meet the support requirements to register as Jakarta cagub-cawagub on 27-29 August.

Can the determination of the criminal element in this NIK profiteering case be resolved by Bawaslu before Dharma-Kun registers? Munandar guarantees it can be done.

"If the handling of violations, there is. The administration is quite short, yes, 2 plus 3, so 5 days if there is an administrative violation. Likewise, the punishment, the time is quite short. Even if it is finished with us, it will continue to the police and the prosecutor's office," explained Munandar.

It is known, Dharma-Kun Wardana passed the results of the second factual verification on the condition of support to register as Jakarta cagub-cawagub. Dharma-Kun is said to have the support of 677,486 residents who are declared the KPU to meet the requirements. Their number of supporters exceeds the minimum limit of the independent Jakarta cagub-cawagub support requirements of 618,968 people.

The day after the announcement, a number of people protested because their NIK was used as a supporter of Dharma-Kun. This was revealed after they checked their NIK on the page www.infopemilu.kpu.go.id/voting/check_supporter.

The electoral expert, Titi Anggraini emphasized, there is a criminal threat if the Dharma-Kun Wardana pair is proven to manipulate the collection of support in order to progress as a cagub-cawagub independent pathway.

"The Pilkada Law regulates that manipulation of support for individual candidates is a criminal act, as stipulated in Law Number 8 of 2015 and Law Number 10 of 2016 concerning the Election of Governors, Regents, and Mayors," said Titi.

In Article 185A of Law Number 18 of 2016 concerning Pilkada, it is stated that anyone who deliberately falsifies a list of supports for individual candidates is sentenced to a minimum imprisonment of 36 months and a maximum of 72 months, and a fine of at least Rp36 million and a maximum of Rp72 million.

After this case was crowded, Bawaslu and the DKI Jakarta KPU just followed up. As a result, on Monday, August 19 evening, 403 NIKs were removed from the support list because they were only found to be ineligible (TMS). However, the number of Dharma-Kun supports of 677,065 still meets the requirements to register with the KPU.