At The Constitutional Court Session, Acting Mayor Of Bekasi Affirmed That He Was Never Ordered To Win Certain Paslons

Follow-up Session Of The Presidential Election Results Claim At MK/PHOTO: Diah Ayu-VOI

JAKARTA - The Acting (Pj) Mayor of Bekasi, Raden Gani Muhammad, was a witness brought in by the Prabowo-Gibran team at the 2024 presidential election dispute trial at the Constitutional Court (MK).

Gani is one of the witnesses presented to refute the argument of Anies-Muhaimin and Ganjar-Pranowo's lawsuits regarding the politicization of the appointment of the acting regional head to win Prabowo-Gibran.

In his testimony, Gani emphasized that he had never received direction from his superiors to win one of the presidential and vice presidential candidates.

"We as the Acting Mayor of Bekasi, we emphasize that we have never received orders from the leadership to side with or win any of the certain pairs of candidates," Gani said at the Constitutional Court hearing, Thursday, April 4.

As a bureaucrat, Gani claims that he has no political interest in carrying out his duties to lead the city of Bekasi while filling the vacant position of mayor.

"We approach based on a normative approach in carrying out government duties and development in Bekasi City," said Gani.

Gani explained that when he was just appointed as Acting Mayor of Bekasi, September 20, 2023, he felt it was necessary to get to know ASN in Bekasi City, both in terms of budget, infrastructure, and territoriality.

"The acting regional head certainly cannot condition the Bekasi City apparatus, although if the acting regional head is assigned to succeed in winning one of the candidate pairs, without the support of the apparatus in the city of Bekasi," he explained.

Today, the Constitutional Court held a follow-up hearing with the agenda of reading information from experts and witnesses related parties, in this case the Prabowo-Gibran camp.

In detail, the experts presented by the Prabowo-Gibran camp in today's trial included Professor of Constitutional Science at Pakuan University, Andi muhammad Asrun; Law expert, Abdul Khair Ramadhan; Professor of the Faculty of Law, Hasanuddin University, Aminuddin Ilmar; and constitutional law expert Margarito Thursday.

Then, the Dean of the Faculty of Management of the IPDN Government, Khalil khairi; Professor of Criminal Law at Gadjah Mada University and former Deputy Minister of Law and Human Rights, Edward Omar Sharif Hiariej, Founder of the Cyrus Network survey institute, Hasan Hasbi; and Executive Director of Indo Baroemeter, Muhammad Qodari.

As for the witnesses, there were six people presented, Chairman of Commission II of the House of Representatives Ahmad Doli Kurnia; Deputy Chairman of Commission VIII of the House of Representatives Ace Hasan Syadzily; Gani Muhammad; Andi Bataralifu; Tanjung Suprianto; and Abdul Wahid.