Dismissed From His Position, KPU Chairman Arief: I Have Never Committed An Election Crime

Arief Budiman (Diah Ayu / VOI)

JAKARTA - Chairman of the General Election Commission (KPU) RI Arief Budiman responded to the decision of the Election Organizer Honorary Council (DKPP) which dismissed him from his position as Chairman of the KPU.

According to Arief, the decision to violate the DKPP code of ethics for accompanying Evi Novida Ginting who challenged the decision to dismiss him from the KPU commissioner was not an election crime.

"One thing I want to emphasize is that I have never committed violations and crimes that hurt the integrity of the elections," Arief told reporters, Wednesday, January 13.

In the dismissal decision, DKPP ordered the KPU to follow up on the decision. Arief said that his party was still waiting for a copy of the decision to be studied. After receiving a copy, the KPU will hold a plenary meeting by all the commissioners.

"We have not received the hard copy (copy of the decision). So we wait, we learn, then what will we do later," said Arief.

DKPP dismissed Arief Budiman from the position of Chairman of the Indonesian KPU because of the case of dismissing Evi Novida Ginting Manik from his position as a KPU member.

Arief was deemed to have violated the code of ethics because he attended and accompanied Evi in filing a lawsuit for dismissal of his position which was decided by DKPP at the Jakarta State Administrative Court (PTUN) some time ago.

In addition, Arief allegedly exceeded his authority, namely issuing RI KPU letter Number 665 / SDM.13.SD / 05 / KPU / VIII / 2020 dated 18 August 2020.

In the previous trial, Arief as a defendant in the DKPP trial explained that his presence at the PTUN on April 17, 2020 was not intended to accompany Evi in registering the lawsuit with the Jakarta PTUN.

Arief's presence, he admitted, merely provided moral support, sympathy, and empathy based on a sense of humanity as an individual due to his long friendship with Evi.

Arief admitted that his presence at the PTUN was not in his capacity as the head of the KPU who represented the institution, because on the same day he was running WFH.

In the DKPP decision hearing, DKPP member Didik Supriyanto said that his party understood the strong emotional bond between Arief and Evi, which was built on similar professions and started a career from below as a member of the KPU.

"However, emotional ties should not close or kill the sense of ethics in carrying out individual personal activities because the defendant (Arief) is attached to the position of chairman of the KPU who is concurrently a member of the KPU who has no emotional ties with anyone except the legal provisions and ethics of the position as election organizers, "said Didik.

In his position, according to Didik, Arief should not have been trapped in emotional acts in placing himself in the public sphere. This, he said, had the implication of being insubordinate and disrespecting the DKPP decision which dismissed Evi from his position.

"The presence of the defendant at every opportunity in the public space to accompany sister Evi in her efforts to fight for her rights causes the KPU to appear as an institution as the main supporter in fighting against the DKPP decision," he explained.