Wiranto's lawyers fail to present evidence, again<\/p>\n
Muninggar Sri Saraswati and Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta<\/p>\n
For the second consecutive day, lawyers for eliminated
\npresidential candidate Wiranto were unable on Wednesday to
\npresent convincing evidence of their claims that the four-star
\nretired Army general had been deprived of 5.4 million votes in
\nthe July 5 election.<\/p>\n
Their failure prompted a Constitutional Court justice to warn
\nthe lawyers not to make false representations about their claims.<\/p>\n
\"If we were to strictly apply the law, we could actually throw
\nthe case out of court, but we will give you another chance as we
\nwant to see whether your claims are true or not,\" I Dewa Gde
\nPalguna, a member of the three-judge panel, told the lawyers.<\/p>\n
The panel was hearing a complaint by Wiranto and running mate
\nSolahuddin Wahid that the pair had been deprived of 5.4 million
\nvotes in 26 provinces due to irregularities in the vote count
\nafter the July 5 election.<\/p>\n
Wiranto came third behind Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and
\nMegawati Soekarnoputri in the official tally of the July 5
\nelection and was thus eliminated from the presidential race.<\/p>\n
Should the Constitutional Court accept his claims, he would
\ntake over from Megawati in second place and thus qualify to
\ncontest the runoff election on Sept. 20.<\/p>\n
Attempting to explain their failure to present evidence yet
\nagain, Wiranto's lawyers said that they did not have the
\ndocuments setting out the results of the presidential election as
\nlocal election commission (KPUD)s had not given copies to their
\ntallymen across the country.<\/p>\n
When Palguna said that they could show documents backing up
\ntheir claims of irregularities in the election results to the
\nElection Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu), lawyer Albert Sagala
\nadmitted that they did not have these documents either.<\/p>\n
\"This is a formal hearing. If you don't have any evidence, we
\nwill have to see if you have been making false representations,\"
\nPalguna warned. Making false representations to a court is
\npunishable with 16 months in prison.<\/p>\n
In another hearing, Syamsul, a witness presented by Wiranto's
\nlawyers in support of their claims, testified that he had not
\nfiled an objection to the results of the election in a district
\nin Southeast Sulawesi.<\/p>\n
According to Syamsul, who is also chairman of the Golkar Party
\nin Lengata subdistrict in Southeast Sulawesi, the election
\ncommittee had conducted a vote recount.<\/p>\n
\"I followed the process and I signed the document approving
\nthe results of the election as I found nothing wrong with it,\" he
\ntold a panel of five justices.<\/p>\n
The lawyers had earlier said that Wiranto had been deprived of
\n32,126 votes in Southeast Sulawesi due to the fact that the vote
\nrecount was conducted two days after polling day.<\/p>\n
The court is expected to finish examining the evidence on
\nThursday and plans to had down its decision on Monday.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, President Megawati Soekarnoputri said on Wednesday
\nthat she had no intention of intervening in the ongoing electoral
\nhearings in the Constitutional Court.<\/p>\n
\"The Constitutional Court has been given the power to resolve
\nelectoral disputes, I will let the process run its course and
\nwill not interfere,\" Megawati said as quoted by Islamic Students
\nAssociation (HMI) chairman Hasanuddin on Wednesday.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/wirantos-lawyers-fail-to-present-evidence-again-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}