KPU gets slap
on the wrist for ethics violation
Hans Nicholas Jong ;
Journalist at The Jakarta Post
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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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