Bawaslu Tulungagung Fires Two Panwascams For The Shift Of Party Votes To Legislative Candidates

The commissioner of Bawaslu Tulungagung took the oath of one of the Panwascam officers suspected of shifting the votes of political parties at the Tulungagung Bawaslu office. (ANTARA/HO - a photo of residents)

TULUNGAGUNG - The Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) of Tulungagung Regency, East Java finally imposed severe sanctions in the form of dismissal of two members of the Boyolangu Panwascam because they were proven to have committed acts of political fraud by shifting the votes of one of the political parties to the votes of the legislative candidate.

"We have tried this case and today it is plenary, where the results were decided to impose severe sanctions in the form of dismissal of BP and BDT because they have been proven to be involved in the fraud (political)," said the Coordinator of the Prevention Division of Parmas and Public Relations of Bawaslu Tulungagung, Nurul Muhtadin, quoted by ANTARA, Monday, March 18.

The two panwascams are full named Bagus Prasetiawan and Benteng Dwi Tamtomo.

Bagus is a member of the Boyolangu Panwascam, while Benteng Ketua Panwascam Boyolangu.

From the results of the examination, the mastermind behind the fraudulent actions of the election organizing committee involved one PPK person in the same sub-district who had already been fired, namely Bagus Prasetiawan.

He was the one who got the "order" from the wrong legislative candidate to shift the votes of the political party to the votes of the legislative candidate.

Benteng's involvement in this series of cheating cases attracted attention because he was one of the candidates for the Tulungagung KPU Commissioner for the 2024-2029 period.

"We leave it to Panwascam Boyolangu to elect a new chairman," Nurul continued.

This decision was taken based on a plenary meeting held today, Monday (18/3). The plenary meeting was held by asking for information from related parties, namely the City Panwascam, Boyolangu Panwascam, Tulungagung KPU and Boyolangu PPK member, M. Hasan Maskur.

From the information and facts of the trial, Bagus was considered the mastermind behind the shift in votes. Because of this, the sanctions imposed on Bagus and Benteng are not the same.

"The fact of clarification, Bagus is considered as the brain," said Nurul.

Meanwhile, Benteng was also involved in the process of planning the transfer of votes. Benteng was only involved at the beginning, but then did not participate in the transfer of votes.

Meanwhile, Bagus was considered active in the shift in votes, even offering ideas and a number of rewards to M. Hasan Maskur.

"It was good to offer this vote transfer plan to Panwascam Tulungagung, but it was immediately rejected," said Nurul.

Benteng's mistake due to a shift occurred in his area. As chairman of Panwascam, Benteng is considered negligent in supervising ballots. The removal of the chairman's position is a sanction for gross performance violations.

"Everyone departed from the ethics trial at the KPU, then we also followed up on the ethics realm at the supervisory level," said Nurul.

Previously, a member of the Boyolangu Panwascam, M Hasan Maskur, was dismissed by the Tulungagung KPU through the Ethics Committee trial. Hasan was proven and admitted that he had transferred 187 party votes to one of the legislative candidates.

For each voice that was shifted, Hasan was promised Rp. 100,000. However, this operation was immediately exposed, and Hasan only received Rp. 8 million.

During the trial, Hasan mentioned the names of Benteng and Bagus. Based on the results of the KPU ethics trial, Bawaslu conducted an ethics trial on two panwascam members.