"The court, after examining the evidence submitted by the applicant, in the form of a proof of letter, writing, video, and witness Rahmansyah, did not find convincing evidence on the truth regarding the situation or event which the petitioner maintains was the non-neutrality of the state apparatus," Aswanto, at the Constitutional Court, stated in Jakarta, Thursday.
Aswanto noted that one video evidence presented by the BPN team, following meticulous inspection, did not show non-neutrality by the authorities to support candidate pair 01, Jokowi-Ma'ruf Amin.
"It turns out that the contents are in the form of requests or specifically the president's appeal to the ranks of the National Police and TNI to disseminate government programs. This is something that is naturally done by the president as the head of state and government," Aswanto explained.
Moreover, Aswanto noted that written evidence submitted by the applicant regarding information of the National Police to form a buzzer team on social media to support the candidate pair 01 to the villages was only in the form of online news photocopies that could not be used as evidence without other supporting proof.
Furthermore, tendering clarification on the allegations of raising support for the candidate pair 01 on the acknowledgment of the Pasirwangi police chief, Garut District, West Java, Aswanto elaborated that during the trial, the Election Supervisory Board (Bawaslu) had made it clear that it could not be used as a finding, as it did not meet formal and material requirements.
The court also considered that the witnesses presented by the applicant Rahmansyah during the trial did not clearly explain the form of non-neutrality shown by a member of the North Sumatra Coal Police.
"The witness only expounded that members of the Coal Police said that they highlighted the successes of the current government in front of the public which were implicitly interpreted by the witness as an invitation to support the candidate pair 01," he stated.
"Although the incident really took place, other evidence is still necessary owing to the influence it must have on voters," he added.
Translator: Devi Nindy/Eliswan Azly
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
Copyright © ANTARA 2019
