"An issue had cropped up in the polling stations, but the organizers did not handle it," a constitutional law observer, Margarito, said.
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Constitutional law observer Margarito said testimonies of witnesses at the Constitutional Court (MK) session on presidential election dispute on Friday revealed some violation in the implementation of July 9, 2014, presidential election.

"An issue had cropped up in the polling stations, but the organizers did not handle it. Election fraud was questioned at the sub-district electoral committee (PPK) level, but it was ignored. The same thing had also happened at the General Elections Commission (KPU) level, but that was also ignored," Margarito said here on Friday.

According to the testimonies of two witnesses from East Java, said Margarito, a serious legal issue had occurred in the province.

However, the same indications had not yet emerged from Central Java and Jakarta because witnesses from these regions had not yet testified.

"If I had been the judge in charge, the emerging legal conditions will have convinced me that something wrong has happened in East Java," Margarito stated.

He said that the legal battle on presidential election dispute filed by the Prabowo-Hatta pair was indeed a battle of pieces of evidence, witnesses, and documents.

According to Margarito, the atmosphere that will be created by the lawyers of the petitioner will later be interesting. This is because so far the judges have only focused on figures, such as the number of voters, voters who had exercised their franchise, and valid votes.

"So, they have not yet shifted to other issues that are more substantive. If the judges track down deep into the issue, I am sure another story will emerge," he noted.

The MK session on Friday had only heard the testimonies of a few witnesses among 25 invited by the Prabowo-Hatta duo.

All the witnesses who have testified said serious violations had been committed in the implementation of the July 9, 2014, presidential elections. They said they had reported the problems but were ignored by the elections organizers.

The election was contested by the Prabowo Subianto-Hatta Rajasa pair and the Joko Widodo-Jusuf Kalla duo.

According to the General Elections Commission (KPU), a total of 190,307,134 voters had been registered, including 2,038,711 overseas voters, with 486,866 polling stations spread across the archipelago.

KPU Chairman Husni Kamil Manik had announced the Joko Widodo-Jusuf Kalla pair as Indonesias upcoming president and vice president after the election result revealed that the duo had garnered 53.15 percent or 70,997,833 votes.

Presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto filed a lawsuit at the court last month, alleging structural, systematical, and massive frauds during the election process.

During the preliminary hearing on Wednesday, his lawyers claimed that millions of votes cast for the Prabowo Subianto-Hatta Rajasa pair were lost due to irregularities at more than 52 thousand polling stations.

The courts ruling, which cannot be appealed, is expected on August 21.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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