Bambang Eka Cahya, an expert on presidential and vice-presidential candidate pairs for the 2024 Presidential Election, Anies Baswedan and Muhaimin Iskandar (AMIN), criticized the acceptance of the registration of Prabowo Subianto-Gibran Rakabuming Raka by the General Election Commission (KPU). He believes that the KPU’s actions were discriminatory.
“The acceptance of Prabowo-Gibran’s registration, which did not meet the requirements by the KPU, is a discriminatory act,” said Bambang during the Dispute of Election Results (PHPU) session for the 2024 Presidential Election at the Constitutional Court (MK) building in Central Jakarta on Monday (1/4/2024).
According to Bambang, even though the Constitutional Court (MK) had issued Decision Number 90/PUU-XXI/2023 on October 16, 2023, the KPU should have amended Regulation KPU Number 19 of 2023 first to adjust the requirements for presidential and vice-presidential candidates.
Therefore, he argued that Prabowo-Gibran’s registration with the KPU, which was treated similarly to other candidate pairs, was discriminatory. This is because the KPU accepted Prabowo-Gibran’s application based on PKPU Number 19 of 2023 which had not been revised according to the MK’s Decision 90/2023.
“Vice-presidential candidate Gibran, who actually differed in terms of age requirements, was treated the same as other vice-presidential candidates who met the age requirements as stipulated in KPU Regulation No. 19 of 2023,” Bambang said.
Furthermore, on November 3, 2023, the KPU finally issued PKPU Number 23 of 2023 amending the requirements in accordance with the court’s decision. Finally, on November 13, 2023, the presidential and vice-presidential candidates for the 2024 Presidential Election were determined.
“The KPU’s failure to update Regulation KPU Number 19 of 2023 is the issue at hand. Why did the KPU accept the registration and verify the documents of candidate pair 02 that did not meet the age requirement according to PKPU 19 of 2023?” Bambang questioned.
Additionally, Bambang stated that the KPU had also violated the principles and principles of the election. He argued that in the conduct of the election, the KPU did not adhere to the procedures, principles, and principles of the election.