The Constitutional Court on Wednesday told the legal teams of presidential candidates Megawati Sukarnoputri and Jusuf Kalla to present evidence backing up their complaints about the July 8 election results. “All those related to these cases should be able to provide proof,” said Mahfud MD, chief of the court. On the first day of hearings on Tuesday, Kalla’s and Megawati’s teams presented the court with different versions of what they claimed were the true election results. While both teams claimed that incumbent President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono failed to garner 50 percent of the national vote, the two candidates also contended that they each obtained the second-highest number of votes. If it is proven that Yudhoyono did, in fact, fail to acquire more than half the vote, a second round of elections would be held, pitting him against the second-place candidate. Mahfud also told the plaintiffs to prove their allegations that there were millions of fictitious voters, which may have influenced the election results. Kalla’s team said it had found 25 million ghost voters while Megawati’s team claimed 28 million. “You should be able to prove that these ghost voters only voted for one candidate and didn’t distribute their vote to all candidates,” he said. Mahfud also asked Kalla’s team to prove that a reduction in the number of polling stations affected the number of votes acquired by their client. “There should be proof that the removal of 69,000 polling stations reduced the votes by 34.5 million,” he said. In its lawsuit, Kalla’s team claimed that the decision of the General Elections Commission (KPU) to cut the number of polling stations may have reduced the voter turnout. The team said that assuming 70 percent of these uncast votes would have gone to Kalla, their candidate would have obtained 24 million more votes putting him in second place. KPU member Endang Sulastri said the reduction in the number of polling stations had no impact on the number of votes as it was merely a “regrouping” of voters.But Chairuman Harahap, a lawyer for Kalla’s team, said that many voters had been left unregistered due to the reduction in the number of polling stations. The court also requested the KPU to provide evidence that it conducted the election according to procedure. “It has to be proven in court … how well they informed the public on voter registration or that voters were allowed to use their identity cards if they were not registered,” Mahfud said. Yudi Latif, a political expert from the Reform Institute, told the court in his expert testimony that a revote was necessary as the election had not been conducted properly. “Because of the defective procedure regarding the voters list, the election was legally flawed,” he said. Arteria Dahlan, a lawyer for Megawati’s team, said they would provide all the necessary evidence. The final hearing of the court in the matter is scheduled for Friday and a ruling is expected early next week.
