REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA - Spokesperson of the National Winning Body (BPN) of Prabowo Subianto-Sandiaga Uno, Andre Rosiade said withdrawal threat of presidential candidate number 02 should be considered as an early warning. Andre said that it would only be carried out if they found any fraud in presidential election in next April.
"So, let there be no fraud. We believe KPU committed about that," he told Republika.co.id on Tuesday (Jan 15).
Andre reminded the election organizer and other parties, to not do things that could hurt the democracy. "We remind the power in the government today, to avoid any frauds," he said.
In line with BPN chief Djoko Santoso, Andre also said that he would take a stand when he found an injustice in the presidential election. His side would boycott and even stepped down from the election contestation.
However, the boycott and retreat would only be carried out after the BPN assessed the developments in the conditions of the general election.
On the one hand, Andre was aware of the existence of election regulations that threaten the candidate pairs who retreat with criminal penalties. He saw it as a technical problem.
"We will see the development first, the important thing is, we have given an early warning," he said.
Previously, BPN Chief Djoko Santoso stated that Prabowo might stepped down if cheated in election. The National Campaign Team (TKN) of Joko Widodo-Ma'ruf Amin said they have predicted that its contender would someday threaten to withdraw from 2019 presidential election. Director of TKN, Lukman Edy said the threat was a peak of delegitimation efforts against KPU as election organizer.
"I've already spoken about this two months ago. In the future there will definitely be a threat of retreating. They are like Javanese people say: Tiji Tibeh. If they don't win, then none of contestants should win. That is what Prabowo often said," Lukman said to Republika.co.id on Tuesday (Jan 15).
In article 236 paragraph (2) of the Election Law, it explicitly prohibits candidates who have been designated as contestants by the General Election Commission (KPU) to withdraw in the midst of contestation. In addition, the prohibition rules for retreat are also mentioned in Article 552 and Article 553.
In Article 552 paragraph (1) states that the presidential or vice presidential candidate who deliberately resigned from the determination of the candidate pair to the implementation of the first round of voting, will be sentenced to a maximum of five years in prison and a maximum fine of Rp 50 billion.
Then article 552 paragraph (2) regulates the leadership of political parties or a combination of political parties who deliberately withdraw their candidates and / or pairs of candidates that have been determined by the KPU until the implementation of the first round of voting, will be sentenced to a maximum of five years imprisonment and a maximum fine of IDR 50 billion.
While Article 553 regulates presidential or vice-presidential candidates who deliberately resign after the first round of voting up to the implementation of the second round of voting, the imposed sanctions are heavier, namely a maximum of six years imprisonment and a maximum fine of Rp100 million.
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