This was the MK's legal consideration regarding the argument of Anies Baswedan-Muhaimin Iskandar's petition that links social assistance with the vote acquisition of Prabowo Subianto-Gibran Rakabuming Raka pair.
"Regarding the petitioner's argument on the relation of social assistance to voting result for certain candidate, the Court does not believe relevance between the distribution of social assistance and an increase in the vote share of one of the candidate pairs," Constitutional Judge Arsul Sani stated in the decision-reading session at the Indonesian Constitutional Court on Monday.
According to the MK, there were no irregularities or violations of regulations in the use of the social assistance budget as argued by Anies-Muhaimin. Sani explained that the use of social assistance budget has been clearly regulated, starting from planning, budgeting, and implementation to accountability.
From the evidence regarding the influence of social assistance submitted by the Anies-Muhaimin pair in the form of survey results and expert testimony, the Court assessed that it does not prove a factual positive correlation between social assistance and voter choice.
"There is no evidence that empirically shows that social assistance has influenced or forced voters' choice," he remarked.
Even if the aid was proven to be distributed by the president, Sani said the Anies-Muhaimin pair could not convince the constitutional judge regarding the origin of the aid, whether it came from the Social Affairs Ministry or from the president sourced from the president's operational funds.
The MK read out its decision in the 2024 General Election Results Dispute (PHPU) case on Monday, April 22, 2024. Chief Justice of MK Suhartoyo started the presidential election dispute trial at 8:59 local time.
The lawsuit filed by Anies-Muhaimin is registered with Case Number 1/PHPU.PRES-XXII/2024, while Ganjar-Mahfud's lawsuit is registered with Case Number 2/PHPU.PRES-XXII/2024.
In their petition, the two pairs urged the MK to cancel the General Elections Commission (KPU) Decree Number 360 of 2024 determining the results of the 2024 presidential and vice presidential general elections.
They also urged the MK to disqualify the Prabowo Subianto-Gibran Rakabuming Raka pair as candidates in the 2024 presidential election and requested the MK to order the KPU to conduct re-election for the 2024 presidential election without including Prabowo-Gibran.
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Translator: Fath Putra Mulya, Resinta Sulistiyandari
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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