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In the wake of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s calls for a crackdown on the nation’s “judicial mafia,” new evidence has emerged that allegedly shows staff from the respected Constitutional Court colluded with the General Elections Commission to manipulate the results of legislative elections.

Refly Harun, from the Center for Electoral Reform (Cetro), said that it was clear that at least one person with special access to written court decisions had conspired with someone from the elections commission, also known as the KPU, to alter the outcome of the April legislative elections in South Sulawesi.

“It seems people in the Constitutional Court and KPU were involved in forging the letters [used to wrongly award a legislative seat],” he said. “They should not think that with their good reputation, [the Constitutional Court] system does not need to see a cleanup of the judicial mafia.”

The case involves a decision by the KPU to wrongly award a seat in the House of Representatives representing South Sulawesi to Dewi Yasin Limpo, a candidate from the People’s Conscience Party (Hanura) and a sister of South Sulawesi Governor Syahrul Yasin Limpo.

That decision was based on a letter dated Aug. 14 that the KPU said it found on an official’s table. The letter, which awarded Dewi the winning number of votes, was purportedly sent from a Constitutional Court fax number.

On Aug. 17, the court sent by courier what appeared to be the same letter to KPU member Andi Nurpati — with the same identification number and similar content — but saying Dewi did not win.

On Aug. 21, Andi, who is also from South Sulawesi, brought the Aug. 14 letter to a KPU meeting to award Dewi a seat in the House. Dewi has previously told the Jakarta Globe that Andi had promised to give her the seat.

The KPU annulled its decision to give Dewi the seat after the court sent a letter in September saying the first letter was a fake.

Andi has said that even though she was in possession of the Aug. 17 letter, she chose to use the Aug. 14 version because it bore the court’s official stamp. Asked if she knew the documents were different, she replied that they looked the same.

Constitutional Court Chief Justice Mahfud MD has said that the Aug. 14 letter was a fake and was sent from a fax number no longer used by the court.

However, the Jakarta Globe has obtained a copy of another letter sent to the KPU from the same fax number on the same date — Aug. 14 — as the bogus letter concerning Dewi. The second letter concerned a South Sumatra candidate, Hasan bin Abdullah, and also bore the court’s letterhead. However, its contents were true, and identical to the genuine letter the court sent by courier to Andi on Aug. 17 — along with the genuine letter concerning Dewi’s race.

This indicates that the person who sent the Aug. 14 faxes — including the bogus Dewi fax — had privileged access to court decisions.

Mahfud, who is respected for his antigraft efforts, would not comment. The court has finished an investigation, but has not made the results public. Refly said it should release the results immediately.

KPU chairman Abdul Hafiz Anshary said an internal investigation had failed to reveal the source of the fake letters.