Observing Information From 4 Ministers, The Constitutional Court Does Not Find Evidence That Jokowi Implements Social Assistance Politization To Win Prabowo-Gibran

President Jokowi when providing social assistance (ANTARA)

JAKARTA - The panel of judges at the Constitutional Court (MK) found no evidence that President Joko Widodo politicized the distribution of social assistance (bansos) in order to win Prabowo-Gibran in the 2024 presidential election.

At least, this was obtained by the Constitutional Court after observing the information from the four ministers presented at the previous trial.

The four ministers are Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Sri Mulyani, Minister of Social Affairs (Mensos) Tri Rismaharini, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto, and Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture (Menko PMK) Muhadjir Effendy.

This was revealed by the Constitutional Court judge Ridwan Mansyur in reading the decision on the 2024 presidential election dispute case with applicants Anies Baswedan and Muhaimin Iskandar.

"From the verbal statement of the four ministers in the trial, the Court did not get confidence in evidence of any intent or intention from the President regarding the distribution of social assistance carried out by the President with the aim of benefiting the presidential and vice presidential candidate pair number 2," said Ridwan, Monday, April 22.

Therefore, according to the Court, Jokowi's actions cannot be categorized as a violation of positive law.

"Moreover, in the trial, the Court found no convincing evidence of a correlation and causality relationship between the distribution of social assistance and the choice of voters," he explained.

Meanwhile, the Court also did not find any irregularities regarding planning, budgeting, and the implementation of social assistance distribution, which coincided with the 2024 election stages.

Then, the implementation of the social assistance budget which is distributed simultaneously (Rapel) and which is directly distributed by the president and minister, according to the Constitutional Court judge, is part of the budget cycle that has regulated its use and implementation.

"That even if there is a distribution of aid to the community by the President, the applicant cannot convince the Court whether the assistance referred to by the applicant is social assistance by the Ministry of Social Affairs or community assistance by the President sourced from the President's operational funds," said MK judge Arsul Sani.