KPU Appeals to MK to Reject Prabowo-Hatta Pair's Lawsuit

Jakarta (Antara) - The General Elections Commission (KPU) has urged the Constitutional Court (MK) judges to reject the Prabowo-Hatta pair's lawsuit request on grounds that it fails to explain where the fraud had occurred. "The request does not explain about where exactly the fraud has taken place, both during vote counting and the recapitulation of vote tallies, which is done in stages," one of the KPU lawyers, Ali Nurdin, stated during a session here on Friday. The Prabowo Subianto-Hatta Rajasa pair has filed a lawsuit with the MK protesting against the decision of the KPU to declare the Joko Widodo-Jusuf Kalla duo as the winner of the presidential election on July 9, citing massive, structured, and systematic frauds in various regions. Nurdin pointed out that the request also failed to cite the reasons for accusing the KPU of confirming incorrect vote counts. "The plaintiff just presents a table of vote counts and tells they have found additional votes given to the number two ticket (the Joko Widodo-Jusuf Kalla pair) and reduction of votes for the number one ticket (the Prabowo-Hatta pair)," he remarked. Nurdin added that the KPU also believes that the results of correction in the lawsuit document cannot be attached as part of the dispute object since they were new materials. "Based on the laws, correction in the lawsuit document was not a new material, while the correction that was submitted has never been mentioned in the case document that has so far been registered," he remarked. In view of that, the KPU lawyers led by senior lawyer Adnan Buyung Nasution demanded the judges to reject the lawsuit request. The session on Friday was held for the second time after the preliminary one on Wednesday. Both Prabowo Subianto and Hatta Rajasa did not attend the session on Friday. In the meantime, hundreds of their supporters staged a demonstration in front of the MK building to show their solidarity with the pair. (*)