Jakarta – The Prabowo Subianto-Sandiaga Uno election ticket rejects the results of the 2019 presidential election (pilpres), but accepts the results of the legislative elections (pileg). They claim however that this does not conflict with the election law and proving allegations of fraud will be done separately.
Speaking before his supporters at the Sahid Hotel in Central Jakarta on Tuesday May 14, presidential hopeful and Greater Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) chairperson Prabowo Subianto stated that they reject the results of the fraudulent vote count.
“We still have a slim hope, but what is clear is that my position is that I will reject the fraudulent vote count”, said Prabowo in closing an event titled Explaining the Fraudulent 2019 Election Data.
But as is already known, both Gerindra and Prabowo’s other principle supporter the Islamic-based Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) made significant gains in the April 17 legislative elections.
Based on the General Election Commission (KPU) vote recapitulation data, Gerindra came in second place garnering 17,594,839 or 12.57 percent of the vote in the legislative elections.
The PKS meanwhile was in sixth place with 11,493,663 or 8.21 percent of the vote. Both experienced an increase in votes compared with previous elections.
Gerindra legislative candidate and Prabowo-Sandiaga election campaign team (BPN) spokesperson Andre Rosiade has confirmed that his party does not reject the legislative election results but do still reject the results of the presidential election.
According to Rosiade, they are two different things. Because of this therefore, Gerindra will still be sending its legislative candidates who have been officially election as representatives to the House of Representatives (DPR).
“I reiterate the position that the pilpres is the Prabowo-Sandi BPN’s business, the pileg is Gerindra’s. The two are different, the C1 [polling station tally forms] are different, the election invitation letters [to voters] are also different, and other things. The BPN will focus on the Bawaslu [Election Supervisory Body], it won’t go to the MK [Constitutional Court]. Meanwhile with the pileg, Gerindra will focus on reporting fraud with the MK”, Rosiade told CNN Indonesia on Monday May 20.
As of Saturday May 18, Rosiade stated that they will submit challenges disputing the legislative election results in three electoral districts (dapil), namely the Jakarta 3, East Nusa Tenggara and East Java-Madura electoral districts.
The PKS meanwhile has yet to declare its position on the 2019 legislative elections. Speaking to CNN Indonesia, PKS Central Leadership Board (DPP) Chairperson Mardani Ali Sera said that a decision to reject the legislative elections will still need further discussion.
“The PKS will stay with the Prosperous and Just Coalition and is still discussing its official position”, said Sera.
The executive director of the election monitoring group Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem), Titi Anggraini, said that the decision taken by Gerindra is quite legitimate.
But however, she said that this will create a public perception that there are irregularities in the accusations of electoral fraud. How is it that the alleged massive fraud only applies to the presidential election when the contestants are the same political parties, both in the legislative as well as the presidential election, and the organisers of the election, the KPU, are also the same.
“In terms of the rules of the game it’s quite legitimate. If we read the UU Pemilu [election law] there’s no stipulation that pemilu [election] participants must accept the results of the pemilu in unison, either the pileg or the pilpres”, she explained to CNN Indonesia on Monday May 20.
Anggraini explained that the election law only says that vote count and the vote recapitulation proceeds from the polling stations (TPS), then the Sub-district Polling Committee (PPK), the regency/municipal KPU, the provincial KPU and finally the national KPU.
Witnesses, she said, are indeed given the opportunity to refuse to sign the vote count and recapitulation results and that the witnesses for the presidential elections and the legislative elections are different.
“So, it’s very possible that pilpres witnesses can refuse to sign, but pileg witnesses are prepared to sign off on the vote count and recapitulation”, she said.
She added that in simultaneous elections do not automatically result in legal investigations being conducted simultaneously or have the same consequences. According to Anggraini legal cases are pursued separately in accordance with evidence. Dealing with reports of violations, particularly those that are structural, systematic and massive, are done in the context of the substance of the report submitted.
“So for the presidential pemilu it’s only for the pilpres, if you want to challenge a pileg [result] they you have to make a report which is indeed specifically related to that. Law enforcement will be carried out in accordance with the report or the evidence being dealt with and the prosecution is carried out in accordance with what has been reported or what is being dealt with”, said Anggraini in conclusion.
Fraud by Gerindra
Earlier, on Tuesday May 16 the Pekanbaru Money Politics Task Force uncovered alleged money politics in a ‘dawn attack’ (offering money to voters on the morning before an election) by a Gerindra Party DPR legislative candidate for the Riau 2 electoral district identified only by the initials DAN.
As many as four people were arrested and the task force secured 506 million rupiah in cash.
In addition to this, North Padang Lawas Deputy Mayor Hariro Harahap and his wife, who are legislative members from Gerindra were found guilty of money politics and jailed for one month and 15 days.
Gerindra Deputy Chairperson Fadli Zon says that they found reasonable evidence of fraud in both the legislative as well as the presidential elections. He gave as an example the inflation of votes and the transfer of votes from one candidate to another candidate.
“But it was different to the pilpres. So it was like horizontal and vertical competition. In the case of the pileg although there was fraud, but mechanisms [to address this] do of course exist, so it’s not a problem. This fraud is of course different from the pilpres where it occurred before, during and after [the election]”, said the deputy speaker of the DPR.
The KPU itself has already completed the recapitulation of the presidential election vote. The Joko Widodo-Ma’ruf Amin ticket won with 55.5 percent of the vote while the Prabowo-Sandiaga ticket received 44.5 percent. (ryn/arh)
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was “Gerindra, Oposisi Penolak Hasil Pilpres Tapi Terima Pileg”.]
