Arientha Primanita – The House of Representatives has urged the electoral commission to present data on 21 disputed polling results, including those affecting four House legislators.
Chairuman Harahap, head of the House's working committee on poll fraud, said at a Tuesday hearing with members of the General Elections Commission (KPU) that in all 21 cases, the winning candidates benefitted from rulings at the Constitutional Court, a body whose integrity is in question.
"For parties that received additional votes at the expense of other parties [following a Constitutional Court review], we need to know the details because that will clarify the case," he said.
The 21 cases include eight involving House contests, nine involving regional legislative polls and four involving the election of regional heads.
Four of the House cases involve currently serving legislators: Ahmad Yani, from the United Development Party (PPP); Ahmad Muzani, from the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra); Chusnunia, from the National Awakening Party (PKB); and Imanuel Kaisepo, from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).
In Yani's case, the Constitutional Court awarded his party an additional 10,417 votes in his South Sumatra constituency, enough to win him a House seat.
Yani denied any allegation of fraud in winning the extra votes, saying he won his seat fairly. "My party, the PPP, is based on Islamic values so it would be impossible for me to be involved in anything forbidden or illegal," he told the Jakarta Globe. "I received my seat from my fight at the Constitutional Court and the verdict is legally binding."
KPU chairman Abdul Hafidz Anshary said his office carried out vote counts and implemented the court's decisions down to the letter.
"Any parties not satisfied with the results can file a suit with the Constitutional Court," he said. "If it has been settled by the court, must we discuss it again? Ask the court, not us." He added that Yani was legally entitled to his seat following the court ruling.
The House's working committee on poll fraud was established in the wake of revelations of possible document forgery by KPU and Constitutional Court officials to fraudulently grant a House seat to a candidate in the constituency of South Sulawesi. When the fraud was uncovered, the rightful winner was granted the seat.
Andi Nurpati, the former polling official at the center of the case who is now a Democratic Party spokeswoman, has not been named a suspect despite a police report filed against her by the Constitutional Court and damning testimony from others implicated in the fraud.