Vote Counting Expected to Conclude Ahead of Deadline

· 5 minutes read

The national-level vote count for the 2019 elections is expected to be completed ahead of the May 22 deadline. The KPU is in the process of tabulating votes from eight remaining provinces.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — As of Wednesday, the General Elections Commission (KPU) has completed the vote tabulation of the 2019 elections in 26 of 34 provinces. With only the votes of eight provinces and those from overseas yet to be counted, the election count could be completed ahead of the May 22 deadline.

On Wednesday, the KPU completed the vote tabulation for seven provinces, namely Southeast Sulawesi, West Sumatra, Central Java, Riau Islands, West Nusa Tenggara, Aceh and Banten. Before that, the KPU had wrapped up vote counting for 19 provinces. Fifty-five of the 80 electoral districts for House of Representatives (DPR) seats in the 2019 election have completed the vote-counting process.

KPU member Wahyu Setiawan believes the time remaining until May 22 will be enough to complete the vote count for the eight outstanding provinces: North Sumatra, Riau, DKI Jakarta, West Java, South Sulawesi, Maluku, Papua and West Papua.

On May 17 or May 18, the KPU will receive a document on the result of vote counting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

KPU member Hasyim Asy ari said that, if the KPU completed the vote tabulation before the May 22 deadline, the election results could be announced early. According to the KPU’s vote counting for 24 provinces, the ticket of presidential election candidates Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and Ma\'ruf Amin won 56,632,015 votes (62.74 percent), while the Prabowo Subianto-Sandiaga Uno ticket won 33,633,160 votes (37.26 percent).

Rules of the game

President Jokowi as the incumbent in the election asked all parties to follow the rules of the game and respect the KPU\'s decision. "We leave it all to the KPU. Because as the organizer, the KPU has the authority," he said after breaking the fast with leaders and members of the Regional Representatives Council in Jakarta on Wednesday evening.

If there was any fraud, Jokowi said, there was an opportunity to file a complaint with the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu). "If there is a bigger dispute, go to the Constitutional Court. There is a mechanism for that. This country has clear rules of the game," he said.

On Tuesday, presidential candidate Prabowo said his party rejected the results of the presidential election count, alleging it was carried out fraudulently. The Prabowo-Sandi national campaign (BPN) claimed that there were seven major violations in the elections, namely campaign violations and violations related to voter invitations, organizers and officials, voting, counting, the voter list (DPT) and the inputting of data.

Sandi said in Surabaya, East Java, that the actions taken by his side regarding the election results were still within the legal realm and in accordance with the Constitution. He expressed hope that the KPU and the Bawaslu would respect the desire of the people, who wanted an honest and fair election.

There is still time until May 22 to make corrections based on the findings submitted. "We have not decided whether we will file a lawsuit with the Constitutional Court. We are waiting for the results," he said. BPN spokesman Andre Rosiade added that the Prabowo-Sandi pair gave the KPU until the end of this week to settle the alleged fraud. If there was no correction, the Prabowo-Sandi campaign team would withdraw its witnesses and boycott the plenary meeting for the 2019 election tabulation.

On Wednesday, witnesses from the Prabowo-Sandi BPN and the Jokowi-Amin National Campaign Team were still watching the national vote tabulation by the KPU.

KPU member Evi Novida Ginting said the KPU would have no problem if witnesses working on behalf of the presidential election candidates were not present for the national vote count, because the meeting was supervised directly by the Bawaslu.

Wahyu Setiawan asked all parties to submit any objections or data differences during the plenary meeting of the national vote tabulation. Regarding the accusation of fraud during the election, Wahyu said the KPU had responded to the complaints. One of them was on the questionable 17.5 million people on the voter list. The KPU had also submitted reports on its follow-up to the fraud allegations to the campaign teams.

Bawaslu member M. Afifuddin said the objections and reports of the Prabowo-Sandi campaign team had been followed up in line with the procedures. Some complaints had not been recorded, because they did not meet formal or material requirements, including reports of alleged deployment of civil servants in the elections for the benefit of certain candidates.

Meanwhile, community leaders in numerous regions expressed hope that the vote counting process and the announcement of the election results would run smoothly and peacefully. "All have legal recourse. If there is fraud, report it through the existing channels. Don’t take to the streets," said the chairman of the West Java chapter of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), Rahmat Syafei, in a meeting of Islamic scholars and Islamic boarding school heads in Bandung, West Java. (REK/ INK/AGE/ SAN/SYA/ XTI/ FLO)

Editor:

kompascetak