Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – The Election Organizers Ethics Council (DKPP) grilled members of the General Elections Commission (KPU) on Wednesday over the opening of ballot boxes prior to the election trial at the Constitutional Court.
In a hearing to follow up on a petition filed by the campaign team of losing presidential ticket Prabowo Subianto-Hatta Rajasa, a DKPP panel questioned KPU commissioners, including chairman Husni Kamil Manik, about the decision to open ballot boxes, which the plaintiff alleged in court was evidence of tampering.
Husni responded by saying that the ballot boxes had been opened in anticipation of the lawsuit at the Constitutional Court, where the Prabowo camp has appealed to overturn the presidential election results.
"The KPU needed to prepare all the evidence. The commission then issued letters on July 25, asking all provincial and city KPU offices to prepare answers and evidence," Husni said.
Before the DKPP hearing, he told the media that the election committee had opened the ballot boxes to copy the recapitulation forms.
DKPP panel member Valina Singka Subekti asked Husni how he could guarantee that no tampering had occurred in the presidential election. "This is Indonesia, not Jakarta [that we're talking about]. How can you convince us that the process was accountable?" she asked.
Husni said the KPU had coordinated with provincial KPU offices as well as instructed them to involve the police, election supervisors and witnesses from both presidential tickets when opening the ballot boxes.
"In our letter of instruction, we gave guidelines to the regional KPU branches on how to open the ballot boxes by involving all parties," he said.
KPU commissioner Sigit Pamungkas said the accusation of an ethics breach was based on the assumption that the opening of the ballot boxes was not conducted professionally, transparently and accountably, which was not true. "This is a transparent process, there's nothing to hide," he said.
Valina then asked why the KPU had been in such a hurry to instruct the opening of ballot boxes on July 25, the same day as the Prabowo camp filed its lawsuit at the Constitutional Court.
Husni reasoned that the KPU felt the need to immediately instruct the regional KPU offices to prepare evidence, since there were few effective workdays left before the start of the trial at the Constitutional Court.
"We realized that we needed ample time to prepare our arguments. And on July 25, most of our staff members were already on holiday for Idul Fitri," he said.
KPU commissioner Hadar Nafis Gumay also pointed out how time-consuming it had been to open the ballot boxes. "There are so many things to do and the cost is also huge. There are more than 480,000 [ballot boxes]. Just imagine that," he said.
Hadar said that if the KPU had waited for the court to officially approve the lawsuit, then the commission would have had too little time to prepare evidence.
Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/08/14/kpu-grilled-over-ballot-box-opening.html