Sabtu, 23 Agustus 2014

KPU gets slap on the wrist for ethics violation

            KPU gets slap on the wrist for ethics violation

Hans Nicholas Jong  ;   Journalist at The Jakarta Post
JAKARTA POST, 22 Agustus 2014
                                                
                                                                                                                                   

Despite the persistent efforts of the lawyers for losing presidential ticket Prabowo Subianto-Hatta Rajasa to make a case that commissioners at the General Elections Commission (KPU) had committed a major breach of its ethics code, the Election Organization Ethics Council (DKPP) has decided to give the commission a mere slap on the wrist.

In its ruling on Thursday, the council only reprimanded the KPU’s commissioners for their decision to allow poll-station officials to open ballot boxes after the results of the presidential election had been announced on July 22.

The Prabowo camp claimed the decision was a violation of the Presidential Election Law, arguing that such a move could only be taken with an order from the Constitutional Court.

DKPP member Valina Singka Subekti said on Thursday that the KPU officials had violated the ethics code by instructing poll workers to open the ballot boxes to retrieve the documents that it needed as evidence in the presidential election dispute at the Constitutional Court (MK).

“Even if the KPU owns the ballot boxes, the data, documents and information contained inside them do not belong to the KPU, but to the public as the central stakeholders in the election,” she said.

The KPU gave the instruction to open the ballot boxes in a letter dated July 25, the same day that Prabowo’s legal team filed its lawsuit with the court.

The panel of justices at the Constitutional Court decided during a hearing on Aug. 8 to allow the KPU to open the ballot boxes.

The KPU said it did not wait for the court’s permission, as to have done so would have left the commission without enough time to prepare its evidence for the lawsuit.

Valina added, however, that if the purpose of opening the ballot boxes was to obtain documentation for possible legal action, then such a move could only be made with the court’s instruction.

The DKPP found the KPU commissioners of breaching the Presidential Election Law, which obliges the KPU to keep the ballot boxes sealed.

Therefore, the act of opening the ballot boxes without an instruction from the court could have led to severe punishment, Valina said.

“However, the presence of election supervisors, witnesses on behalf of the two rival tickets and police officers [as the boxes were opened] was a mitigating factor,” she said.

The council also said that it was persuaded to let the KPU commissioners off the hook because the witnesses presented by Prabowo’s legal team did not provide sufficient evidence to prove that the KPU had intended or attempted to tamper with any of the documentation retrieved from the ballot boxes.

In its ruling, the DKPP also reprimanded KPU chairman Husni Kamil Manik for failing to attend a plenary meeting announcing the candidacy of Prabowo-Hatta and their rivals, Joko “Jokowi” Widodo-Jusuf Kalla.

Commenting on the DKPP’s decision, the head of Prabowo’s legal team, Mahendradatta, said that the findings and verdict from the council’s hearing may be used in the subsequent legal step that the team planned to take.

He said his team would submit the DKPP’s ruling to the National Police’s (Polri) criminal investigations division as evidence, proving that the KPU’s decision to open the ballot boxes was illegal.

“There was no reason for the KPU to open the ballot boxes and take possession of public property,” Mahendradatta said.

While the DKPP found the KPU guilty for opening the ballot boxes, the council did not consider the use of the additional special voter lists (DPKTb) as a violation of the law.

In its ruling, the DKPP instructed the dismissal of all commissioners at the Dogiyai General Elections Commission (KPUD) in Papua for ignoring a recommendation from the Elections Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu) and using the legislative election’s recapitulation form rather than the presidential election’s recapitulation form during the ballot counting.

Overall, the DKPP dismissed nine local election organizers and regional election supervisors and reprimanded 30 others.

Speaking after the hearing, Husni said that the KPU commissioners would learn from the verdict and promised to do better in the future.

“The DKPP’s ruling is final and binding, so it’s not a matter of do we accept it or not,” he said. “There will also be an evaluation [based on the ruling].”

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